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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
23,035
58,794
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Like the Old Cajun says in his avatar, "We have met the enemy and they is us." Taken from an old comic strip called Pogo (a possum) which I think was originally "we have met the enemy and he is us." A reference at the time in the early 1970s about earth's pollution. Still I think humans are their own worst enemy, we create stuff supposedly to make our lives easier, more comfortable, etc. but in the end it can cause more trouble than it solves.
Those of us who grew up in a pre digital world have been equal parts amazed, delighted, and appalled by the changes. Sapiens are great at developing powerful tools beyond their ability to fully comprehend.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
6,864
20,021
Sapiens are great at developing powerful tools beyond their ability to fully comprehend.

I imagine that in most cases there are synthesists who saw and predicted the unintended consequences of "futuristic" things.

The problem i$ a $ufficient number of people $tood to benefit from those thing$ to shout down/obfuscate/cover up/etc those consequences.

Hell, companies with shareholders can't see farther than 90 days out (essentially) by law. It's their fiduciary duty to act stupidly and be numb to long term consequences.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
23,035
58,794
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I imagine that in most cases there are synthesists who saw and predicted the unintended consequences of "futuristic" things.

The problem i$ a $ufficient number of people $tood to benefit from those thing$ to shout down/obfuscate/cover up/etc those consequences.

Hell, companies with shareholders can't see farther than 90 days out (essentially) by law. It's their fiduciary duty to act stupidly and be numb to long term consequences.
Money is the least of it. Control is where it's at. Create and control the narrative and you control the vast majority of the populace. In addition, get them addicted to your product. That's been the basic rule for all large social media since its inception.
 

Servant King

Geriatric Millennial
Nov 27, 2020
5,908
35,397
40
Frazier Park, CA
www.thechembow.com
Jesse is right. Currency means nothing to the parasitic control structure. That can just be printed up at will. The real value is in the control. Something that cannot just be generated by a printing press at the push of a button. Has to be achieved by neurolinguistic programming, and the whole AI/social media Frankenstein monster run amok is tailor made for the task.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...Idiocracy belongs in the non-fiction section.
 

prairiedruid

Lifer
Jun 30, 2015
2,120
1,584
Manipulating images has been around since photography started such as ghost/fairy photography in the late 1800s and all the photo doctoring Stalin did in the 1930's and 40's. The issue today is that any 9 year old now has the tools to do it.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
6,864
20,021
Currency means nothing to the parasitic control structure. That can just be printed up at will.

You're not going far enough up the line. The only people with the power to print more money (so to speak) are those who already have a lot of it.

Money is power.

Whether someone with a lot of money chooses to use it to influence things is another matter. Some do, and some don't. But influencing events/people/things without it? Not possible. (lightning-strike momentary fame excepted, like being the first man to orbit the Earth, climb Mt. Everest, etc.)
 
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mortonbriar

Lifer
Oct 25, 2013
3,054
6,636
New Zealand
Do you think AI is 'more of the same' human nonsense, just kind of sped up so its acted out in real time?

A comparison I am thinking of from last century is the substantial difference between actual attendance numbers at woodstock, and the number of people who claimed, over the decades since the festival, to have been there, man.

This is a distortion of reality, not by any one party with an agenda, but still, something about the pattern of it reminds me of this whole AI/video/reality/truth debacle.
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
10,663
18,207
Whether someone with a lot of money chooses to use it to influence things is another matter. Some do, and some don't. But influencing events/people/things without it? Not possible.

I wouldn't say impossible...the internet has enabled a large number of "ordinary" people, who started with no money, to become quite influential...to one degree or another...some of whom now have significantly more influence (and credibility) with the public than the lying and dying corporate media.

Technology is a double-edged sword, and ironically the best defense we have against fake AI videos is probably the fact that just about every individual everywhere has a video camera with them at all times now. When a significant event occurs these days, there are usually many independent views of it posted almost immediately. This will at least make it difficult to pass off a fake version of it as authentic.

The public didn't see the Zapruder film until many years after the event. Imagine if several angles of it had been on youtube immediately afterward...we might be living in a very different future right now.
 
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zanxion

Might Stick Around
Jul 26, 2025
70
395
Greece
And there is the future:
Them building a new kind of "reality" for naive to believe it. There will be plenty of them, and the ones who build these "realities" will control those who believe it.
 

Searock Fan

Lifer
Oct 22, 2021
2,582
7,300
Southern U.S.A.
I can see it now... This scoundrel creates a video of some guy having sex with the neighbor's dog and unless he is paid he will send it to the guy's wife. I've already warned my wife about being careful of impersonators on the phone or net. She already got scammed once a couple of years ago by someone impersonating her nephew. Now she is supposed to ask them questions to see if they are who they say they are. :mad: