Sampson

There are codes of how to 3d print a virus as infectious as Covid and as deadly as Ebola out there on the dark web allegedly. The AI will no doubt be able to create viruses even deadlier All it takes is the AI to decide that doing a task is more efficient without humans. It won’t be hard to find some lonely autistic teenagers who’d it’d be able to convince to print it out and spread it for them.

Always reminds me of this

I find it hard ti get my head round this argument personally . Surely the AI just needs any goal and humans could die out from a weird outcome of that? Because it’s impossible to predict exactly what safeguards are needed I mean, see how social media algorithms have had a large role to play in democratic backsliding and division - that isn’t by design. The goal was simply to recommend more videos to which someone would like that would keep people watching - it wasn’t a malevolent intent by humans and wasn’t really one anyone predicted back in 2012 - it just turned out getting people angry and divided kept them watching social media videos more. When humans created the telegram, the passenger pigeon was wiped out across America, because it allowed hunters to communicate with each other as to where they were nested - that was just a weird side outcome by the technological development of the telegram and not an outcome anyone would’ve predicted back when the telegram came out The truth is no one knows what safeguards to have in because no one knows the weird outcomes AI would’ve created in society in 20 years time Edit: this Hank Green video explains my thoughts on this better

Almost failed again Wordle 1 687 6/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Darkness at the break of noon Shadows even the silver spoon The handmade blade, the child’s balloon Eclipses both the sun and moon To understand you know too soon There is no sense in trying Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn Suicide remarks are torn From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn Plays wasted words, proves to warn That he not busy being born is busy dying Temptation’s page flies out the door You follow, find yourself at war Watch waterfalls of pity roar You feel to moan but unlike before You discover that you’d just be one more Person crying So don’t fear if you hear A foreign sound to your ear It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing As some warn victory, some downfall Private reasons great or small Can be seen in the eyes of those that call To make all that should be killed to crawl While others say don’t hate nothing at all Except hatred Disillusioned words like bullets bark As human gods aim for their mark Make everything from toy guns that spark To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark It’s easy to see without looking too far That not much is really sacred While preachers preach of evil fates Teachers teach that knowledge waits Can lead to hundred-dollar plates Goodness hides behind its gates But even the president of the United States Sometimes must have to stand naked An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it Advertising signs they con You into thinking you’re the one That can do what’s never been done That can win what’s never been won Meantime life outside goes on All around you You lose yourself, you reappear You suddenly find you got nothing to fear Alone you stand with nobody near When a trembling distant voice, unclear Startles your sleeping ears to hear That somebody thinks they really found you A question in your nerves is lit Yet you know there is no answer fit To satisfy, insure you not to quit To keep it in your mind and not forget That it is not he or she or them or it That you belong to Although the masters make the rules For the wise men and the fools I got nothing, Ma, to live up to For them that must obey authority That they do not respect in any degree Who despise their jobs, their destinies Speak jealously of them that are free Cultivate their flowers to be Nothing more than something they invest in While some on principles baptized To strict party platform ties Social clubs in drag disguise Outsiders they can freely criticize Tell nothing except who to idolize And then say God bless him While one who sings with his tongue on fire Gargles in the rat race choir Bent out of shape from society’s pliers Cares not to come up any higher But rather get you down in the hole That he’s in But I mean no harm nor put fault On anyone that lives in a vault But it’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please him Old lady judges watch people in pairs Limited in sex, they dare To push fake morals, insult and stare While money doesn’t talk, it swears Obscenity, who really cares Propaganda, all is phony While them that defend what they cannot see With a killer’s pride, security It blows the minds most bitterly For them that think death’s honesty Won’t fall upon them naturally Life sometimes must get lonely My eyes collide head-on with stuffed Graveyards, false gods, I scuff At pettiness which plays so rough Walk upside-down inside handcuffs Kick my legs to crash it off Say okay, I have had enough what else can you show me? And if my thought-dreams could be seen They’d probably put my head in a guillotine But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life… and life only

I don’t think they think anyone will either. The big tech bros like Bezos, Musk. Zuckerberg etc. sucker up to Trump so that he lets them do what they want with low tax, no privacy laws and unregulated technology and AI in a BioShock style Libertarian state. It’s no more complicated than that.

I’ve said before I admire your steadfastness leicsmac but I’ve found it so hard to find hope in politics and humans taking responsible actions for the good over humanity over taking power since 2016.

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The most depressing thing about Farage is he’s like that really cringey hanger-on in school who so wants to be with the in-crowd as one of the cool silicon valley American types. You just know he’d bend over backwards to let Musk run riot with AI destroying half the country’s jobs and just lie down and let Trump walk all over him when he says he wants the Falklands, a united Ireland and wants to asset strip the UK for his own personal wealth.

If this was well regulated on the advice of experts and strictly controlled by supra-national international institutions, rather than being pushed by Libertarian tech bros like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg with their pressurising of the EU and national governments who try to remotely regulate them at a time where the kind of parties those tech bros get behind (not by coincidence me thinks) want to smash international institutions and cooperation between nations, then I might agree with you. But as is… definitely not gonna happen like that sadly.

I’d be more concerned that the governments are just going to ask AI everything themselves and we’re governed by AI. AI has already continuously showed it will do what it takes to stop humans destroying it when tested. So that virus as deadly as Ebola and as contagious as Covid that AI could engineer and send out into the world when it realises it’s more efficient not having the humans around is much scarier than the job market to me.

But how close is close? I think humans are not very good at predicting more than 3 or 4 years into the future: I’ve seen people dismiss AI by comparing it to the dot com bubble saying it’s just a fad, but that seems a bizarre comparison because the internet has completely transformed our world within a single generation - almost every job has been transformed by it, where or how we live and shop, our attention spans and brain chemistry, our economy, democratic backsliding, the threat of countries falling into authoritarianism, how people meet potential partners, how people socialise, our national security system, how much companies and states know what we think when we google or message on autopilot etc Like there’s barely a point of society it hasn’t touched and it’s transformed how our brains and governments work and that only really took 20 years to get to that point. The dot com bubble happened because it didn’t take 2 years but everything people promised and warned about the internet ended up happening and more. And 20 years is not really that much time in the scheme of it, it’s only a bit over 1/3rd of a persons working life. AI will be the same if not way more transformative than the internet. People hyping Gen AI it may not happen tomorrow but let’s say you’re a 25 year old today who still has another 45 years of working life left - what will the world look like and how will AI have transformed it in 45 years - it will likely be unrecognisable

I’m with you. I’m no fan of Starmer - I think he’s the kind of “boring technocrat” of “let’s just try things for a bit and see what works” that would’ve had a place as a Prime Minister in the mid-00s, but when we’re currently in the times of the biggest pivot point in world alliances and world structures since the Second World War, I’d rather have someone with much more of a vision and who is more decisive. But I think the one thing the country absolutely doesn’t need is the revolving door of PMs we had under the Tories. What do Labour MPs think will happen if Burnham or Wes Streeting becomes PM? The economy isn’t suddenly going to fix itself, the foreign policy challenges which have arguably become bigger than the domestic policy challenges with the USA becoming so erratic and the Ukraine war aren’t going to suddenly sort themselves out.

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/53934-what-do-britons-think-about-the-uks-relationship-with-china-at-the-start-of-2026 USA down 17pts on whether Brits see it as a friendly nation or not in the space of just 2 months, now below India.

Genuinely feel sick in the pit of my stomach what’s going on in America. Genuinely also feel sick in the pit of my stomach that people are prepared to vote for Farage and let our country bow down to this.

I disagree. I think it’s just that too many in Britain just haven’t woken up to who he considers friend or foe yet despite him, JD Vance and the US yearly policy reports making it abundantly and consistently clear. He’s fine to speak softly and not wave about his big stick to Putin, Orban or Milei for example. That board of peace speech should’ve made that clear. It also should’ve made it clear he’s creating institutions that mean America probably isn’t going back regardless of what happens in the next elections and that we have to assume the world order is changing permanently

People are pearl clutching because we’re all so desperate for something to finally be the final straw to break the camel’s back that gets our leaders to actually stand up to this guy who is quite openly and gleefully trying to project himself as knowingly and outed evil at this point, so he can watch everyone nod along so he gets to see his power like he’s Vladamir Harkonnen. It’s these constant pieces of open cruelty and intimidation that he actively wants to see if he get people to nod along to so he can see his own power. One of the most chilling parts of his davos speech was when he was publicly talking about leaders in the crowd saying something along the lines of “look they’re all looking down, can’t even bring themselves to look at up at me” and you could hear the mockery in his voice, like a cat playing with his mouse before he eats it, getting a kick out of his cruel power over it.

Be interesting to see if Farage supports his “dear, dear friend” draft-dodging Trump on this latest insulting rant against our 457 killed soldiers in Afghanistan or he does the usual “don’t worry, he’s my mate, I’ll have a word” shit. Surely he has to start reading the room soon that British people want to stand up against this anti-British and anti-European rhetoric

In that case why are we not taking a lead in this? The world is currently tearing apart the current order and jarringly going through its biggest realignment of alliances and ideals since WW2. Yet it feels like we’re just sat there doing nothing and waiting for someone to tell us what to do - Starmer too scared to both upset Trump and look like he’s getting too near to the eu because of some referendum a decade ago which took place in a different world and Farage and Badenoch sychophanting everything about Trump like yes men. Ed Davey the only one actually saying we shouldn’t sycophant up to Trump like Carney is and he gets zero press coverage. Britain should be taking the lead of creating this united 4th block seperate to US, China and Russia of Europe, Canada, Australia and others. This is a time of creating huge new ambitious organisations, alliances or even new national and supra-national institutions and ideals in the same we did in the years directly after WW2. It’s not a time to sit there passively - if we sit there passively Trump, Putin and Xi will do it for us and force us to be part of them

Spot on, and the uk is probably worse at this than all. Sums up many leaders and past leaders of the uk especially who seemed to want to divide our own continent and just suck up to the USA. Zelensky says President Trump "won't change". "Some European leaders are from Europe, but not for Europe," he says. He adds that some Europeans are "really strong," before saying they "always need someone else to tell them how long they need to stand strong for". That's not how great powers work, he says. "America is changing its position," he continues, "but no one knows exactly how. Things move faster, how can Europe keep up with that?" He says Europe faces challenges to the "European way of life".

You’ve all seen how he deals with Russia and Ukraine right? Putin or Stephen Miller will be in his ear in a couple of months and he’ll be back threatening Europe over Greenland again. We shouldn’t forget this and should ween ourselves off the USA. It’s all about constantly pushing the boundaries and then moving back so that the boundaries creep over time

He sounds like he’s at deaths door. Like he could just collapse at any moment

Amazing how different this all feels without his yes men and sycophants in the audience. The dead silence at his jokes and non-sensual dementia-sounding ramblings is almost dystopian

How can any European apologise for this guy? How can any European vote for a party whose leader wants to be friends or go along with this guy?

The problem is I still think Trump is nothing compared to what’s coming with AI.