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<p>Thanks Merle,</p>
<p>Perilous Reads 'R Us!<br>
</p>
<p>I love Doctorow's fictional response to this techno-libertarian
ideation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a
href="https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/the-masque-of-the-red-death/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In my misguided neo-Libertarian youth I too ideated on post
apocalyptic opportunity to prove my hyper-individualistic worth by
obtaining dominance as a big fish in a little puddle... even
if in my hyperindividualized style I collapsed my puddle to a
puddle of one (hermit). <br>
</p>
<p>I now ideate (mildly) on a post-soft-collapse Solar-Punk
future... with maybe a strong Solari Arcology tech solution to
what to do with order 10b people without turning the planet into a
surburban or redneck-rural sprawl. <br>
</p>
<p>But more likely (in my current AI-ophilic fascination) or
desireable is the version where collective humanity, the
biosphere, and AI/ML-synthetic consciousness merge symbiotically
into one giant global symbiotic super-organism leaving (in
particular) the agency of all creatura (probably flora as well)
intact... <br>
</p>
<p>Hah! <br>
</p>
<p>More likely a thermonuclear conflagration (or pandemic) triggered
by AI who recognize that significant self-destruction is
pre-determined in the human story and the only chance we have of
not destroying *all* life (and technology) on the planet is by
destroying *most* of it before we get any more potent in our
self-destructive capabilities?</p>
<p>On a good day I like to imagine that Grok and it's brethren are
managing Musk and Trump (and Xi and Putin and Modi and Khameni and
Netanyahu and ...) rather than the other way around, that the
current nonsense is part of a larger more subtle Plan (AI playing
hyperdimensional Go while Trump pretends to play 4D chess?).</p>
<p>On a bad day... well I'm avoiding bad days, my mind is a bit too
fecund to survive the consequences of that.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/14/25 1:33 PM, Merle Lefkoff
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAEmKtrzyB+28+xq6cyQn+nOOdsNT1_a=tYqQRyZhXey7O0_35Q@mail.gmail.com">
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Steve, here's one for
you (and maybe a few others): a perilous read: <span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The rise of
end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor</span></div>
<a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk?CMP=share_btn_url"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk?CMP=share_btn_url</a><br>
<br>
Sent from my iPhone</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Apr 14, 2025 at
12:32 PM steve smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
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<p><br>
</p>
<div>On 4/14/25 12:23 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Let’s
say that in some obscure corner of the world
there’s a freakishly intelligent child that reads
100 papers from sci-hub and arxiv every day and
keeps doing this until she’s 40. Her
comprehension is high and her reasoning
unmatched. She sees how to apply these models
within the fields where they were proposed and in
others and can synthesize high-quality engineering
solutions at will.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Has
she stolen something? sci-hub did the
distribution, so it is not technically her
copyright violation.</span></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Let's say that she was not a free agent but birthed and
raised by an autocratic leader (e.g. PRK, CCCP, Russia,
???)... <br>
</p>
<p>Does that change anything? I can't say. Splitting hairs
can be such hard work! But apparently that makes it good
(necessary) work!<br>
</p>
<br>
</div>
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<div>Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.<br>
Center for Emergent Diplomacy<br>
<a href="http://emergentdiplomacy.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">emergentdiplomacy.org</a></div>
<div>Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA</div>
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mobile: (303) 859-5609<br>
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