Bronze Age Collapse: Organization-Dependent Technology Failure in the Distant Past We distinguish between two kinds of technology, which we will call small-scale technology and organization-dependent technology. Small-scale technology is technology that can be used by small-scale communities without outside assistance. Organization-dependent technology is technology
Google Argon 4 adds nothing to previous iterations for writers. I requested one review of a post here and got back some sloppy stuff. OpenAI Astra 6 was better. Like Argon, Google's Gemini invariably characterizes anything I write as "cynical." It makes lazy assertions about texts
What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and
The U.S. provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel in the two years after October 7, about $17.9 billion of it under Biden. This helped Israel keep up its military campaign in Gaza. I considered voting for Team Blue this November. I've
You sit or stand where you are told to sit or stand and do what you are told to do in the way you are told to do it. Seldom do you have to exert yourself seriously, and in any case you have hardly any autonomy in work, so that
"Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history." — Oligarch Gates Meta's Muse is a personal AI agent released on September 8. It quickly took the number one spot on the Apple
I've been listening to podcasts for the past couple of days that talk about the end of writing and the end of the world. AI slop has taken over the publishing industry, flooding the market with low-quality, chatbot-generated self-published literature. Some of the characteristics of
More Perfect Union's "The People Who Are Abusing Welfare Are Not Who You Think" has an awkward title, but it's a worthy survey of the complexity of administering state-funded programs like Medicaid. Except the complexity is fake, meant to squeeze money out of
I test-drove OpenAI's new frontier, ChatGPT 6 Astra, over the past few days. My initial impression is that AGI is way, way far away or just around the corner. Astra was breathlessly hyped at its release as the arrival of general intelligence. Architecturally, it may be, since
In middle age, I reflect a lot on family now. As someone who went East in spiritual matters, I've been a little perplexed over the role of family in Buddhism. My views on family were shaped by Western civilization and the Christian tradition. These do not map neatly
Ursula K. Le Guin appeared in an eighth-grade literature textbook. In the early 1980s, America's public education system was still solid but not perfect. The selections were varied and interesting. Our teacher would let us read quietly to ourselves in class for 30 minutes a few times
Below are ways people deal with the problem with being a self. By adopting one of these as a personal outlook for the future, you can alleviate some of the stress of you being a you. The Rapture This is a perennial favorite in America. It's a late