Prepare for Change

  Who could have guessed that Plato, that Greek philosopher from from the 4 th century BC, could have come up with a great explanation of our current Artificial Intelligence? His Allegory of the Cave is a great way to understand how AI works, and its built-in weaknesses. Imagine, says Plato, a group of people chained to a wall in a cave. In front of them is a high wall, which is all they can view. Behind them is a rise where a fire is burning. Between the fire and the chained people is a walkway where individuals walk, holding up silhouettes of various things. The silhouettes create shadows on the high wall that the chained people can see. These silhouettes are the only way the chained people get information about the outside world. To them, that is the world, since that is all they know. While Plato is using this allegory as a promo for philosophy, I think it’s an excellent explanation of AI. Consider the chained people as AI programs. The fire and silhouette hol...

  PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO RE AI: Molly Crabapple - https://www.mollycrabapple.com/ Cory Doctorow - https://doctorow.substack.com/ Gil Duran - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Nerd-Reich/Gil-Duran/9781668221402 Karen Hao - https://karendhao.com/home Helen Toner - https://cset.georgetown.edu/staff/helen-toner/   Ed Zitron - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/19/ed-zitron-on-big-tech-backlash-boom-and-bust-ai-has-taught-us-that-people-are-excited-to-replace-human-beings  

I wrote previously asking if President Trump is trying to bankrupt the United States. The current national debt (what our country has borrowed) is about $40 trillion. Of that, $3.18 trillion has been added in Trump’s second term in office, which is not even half way through. $7.88 trillion was added from his first term .  You would think this would be a priority for any president to REDUCE the national debt, since we have to pay interest on what we borrow. Currently we are paying $1 trillion annually in interest. Trump is simply spending like a drunken sailor, probably subconsciously guided by his own history of 6 bankruptcies. Here are a few other things he’s either spending or trying to spend our tax dollars on: $1.5 trillion proposed defense spending.  $275 billion to build Trump-class battleships , even though the Navy says they are a relic of the past.  $100 billion going back to businesses because of illegal tariffs $11 billion for Navy icebrea...