I was listening to The All In Podcast today and one of the participants made an interesting observation — the content found on YouTube could be the most valuable information in the world. The idea that it’s possible that Google might train its AI models on YouTube is kind of mind blowing.
Now, there might be the issue of Google’s management may fumble the bag for various reasons and even with all that content not be able to build a “moat” around its AI. But just the idea that you might have a commercial AI product trained on YouTube content is staggering.
It will be interesting to see what happens going forward.
One thing is clear — barring The Fourth Turning / WW3, the next 18 months could see hyper development on the AI, android and spatial computing fronts. As part of that, I think we’re going to have to start taking the Universal Basic Income as a serious policy agenda.
I’m well aware of all the problems with both Apple Vision Pro and existing AI models. But I’m old enough to remember the early days of the Internet and how in fits and starts that technology gradually took over the world.
Again, remember, before I continue that there IS the issue of The Fourth Turning to worry about. It could be that much like WW2 delayed the development of TV, so, too, will the collapse of the US and WW3 could delay the actual Petite Singularity from happening.
But back to the point — when AI Generated Media is available on something like an Apple Vision Pro, then, lulz, we’re definitely in a Burn, Hollywood, Burn type scenario. In fact, the only way I could see Hollywood surviving such a thing is Washington passing some sort of carve outs for humans created art.
I could also see passive, human Hollywood surviving in some way if we, as a society, begin to give human-made media some sort of specific cultural value. In line with that, I could see Broadway really becoming culturally white-hot because Hollywood has been consumed by the technologies associated with the Petite Singularity.
And that doesn’t even begin to address how things might be disrupted if we can figure out a way to stick LLMs into android technology. It’s at least possible that if all the DDD jobs that immigrants come to the US to fill simply are done by androids…that MIGHT solve our border crisis. (Though, I will not that the racism of the Right is white hot that it could take decades for them to calm down about the lack of those sweet, sweet white babies — even if technology makes their concerns moot.)
Who knows. I can’t predict the future. But I do think that the next 18-odd months could be some of the most eventful on both a technological and political manner in recent human history.
If the history of the Internet is any indication, then we’re probably going to see something akin to the Sandra Bullock movie “The Net,” but for the Petite Singularity pretty soon. One movie that deals with a lot of topics that would allow some cool visual effects would be an adaptation of the novel The Unincorporated Man.
The Fourth Turning may make the technology of The Unincorporated Man moot, at least for a while.
The novel is really interesting for a number of reasons, but it really talks about the potential downsides of VR. In the novel, set in the far future, there was something called The VR Plague that wiped out a lot of people who stopped eating because they were addicted to VR.
There are some political elements to the novel that might cause it to be something of a turn off to some, but overall the novel is ripe to be turn into a movie. If nothing else, I do think that we’re going to see an explosion of movies that deal with the Petite Singularity technologies of VR, AR and AI.
It would all be a part of the broader vibe shift that we’re just about to undergo –that is, of course, unless the fucking Fourth Turning doesn’t cause a collapse in human civilization.
Either America turns all Red in 2024, or we there’s some sort of civil war / revolution and we fight it out see if Blues can win. I say this because there is a Hitleresque cult of personality that surrounds Trump at this point that is really destabilizing the country.
I can’t predict the future, but I find it really, really hard to imagine a scenario whereby we just muddle through like we always otherwise do. It seems like we’re careening towards a very, very dark future. One where we either become a MAGA-themed autocracy or we collapse into a type of political violence not seen since the Civil War.
I really hope neither one of those things happen.
But I’m a realist. As such, it definitely SEEMS like the greatest country in human history is on the cusp of a significant change one way or another in the very near future. And all because of “vibes.”
All because conservatives are scared of women, gays and brown people. Everything is so fucked up. And I still believe if Trump gets a second term that he will be so bad at his job of being an autocrat that he might be deposed in some way.
I only say this because if Trump goes full tyrant in some sort of ham-handed manner, then, yikes. It definitely seems as though we’re totally and completely fucked.
There is a quirk of the American Constitutional system that scares the ever living beejeebas out of me and that is if no one person wins the Electoral College outright that the House and Senate pick from the top THREE vote getters.
Horace Greeley
Now, you may say, lulz, so what.
But there are two issues you have to remember.
One is, both Trump and Biden are old as fuck. Second, when Horace Greeley died after the 1872 election his electoral votes were distributed amongst the other people who ran.
If, God forbid, either Trump or Biden — or both! — were knocked out of the election after the 2024 election happened….Holy Shit. Total fucking chaos. Because who what might happen to the veep of whichever candidate has shuffled off this mortal coil?
There is one added complication — not only would the House pick from the top three candidates, but each state gets only one vote made up of state delegations. Talk about potential shenanigans. Massive chaos and horse trading. The country is already on edge as it is, bullshit like this could push us over the edge.
This is all very speculative. There’s every reason to believe we won’t have to worry about any of is because we’ll be so busy worrying about if we’re going to become an autocracy or have a revolution / civil war.
I’m still smarting over some fucking Twitter liberal putting me on blast for simply believing that it won’t be the of the story if Trump wins re-election in the fall. This nattering nabob of negativism seems to think that our only choice is to “vote harder” and it’s a foregone conclusion that we’ll turn into German 1933 the moment Trump has power again.
I find this extremely aggravating. I don’t think it’s “optimistic” to suggest that SOME SORT of severe reaction will happen within Blue parts of the USA if Trump goes full tyrant. Seems pretty dark to me. Now, obviously, if Trump goes full tyrant, there’s a chance that about 1 million smug Twitter liberals will leave the country.
But that still leaves a shit ton of very angry Blues spread across the third largest nation by geography and population. I don’t want to have to depose the POTUS in a revolution then have to worry about a civil war when Red States leave the Union in protest.
That would not be fun or cool or “optimistic.”
Anyway. I am not prepared to give up if Trump wins. For me, it won’t be the end of the story, it will be a new beginning in which we will all be tested and forced to figure out what we will risk our lives and scared honor IN THE REAL WORLD to protect.
On a macro, structural basis, the “vibes” that are tearing the United States apart at the moment all go back to white people being unhappy with demographic trends. Everything from abortion to immigration boils down to — not enough sweet, sweet little white babies being born for the liking of racist, misogynistic white people who hate the browning of America and the mainstreaming of feminist ideals.
In a sense, we probably should just accept our fate — the moment ANY Republican is president, the US is going to become a Hungary-style autocratic state. ANY Republican president, no matter who that might be, will ignore democratic norms and twist and warp the wording of the Constitution to get what they want — a white Christian ethnostate.
And, yet, there is one person who might stop that from happening — malignant ding-dong Trump.
The reason why I suggest this is Trump is so bad at actually governing that given the opportunity to be an autocrat, there’s a pretty good chance that he will so piss everyone off that he could very well be deposed. (I’m not advocating anything!)
Any other Republican in his position could easily and peacefully transition the US into an autocratic state. But Trump. Oh boy. He is going to thrash around to the point that even the people who would be the core of his support — Traditionalists who would otherwise be “Good Americans” — might sit up and take notice.
It took Putin a few years to move Russia into the autocratic state it is now. Trump is so dumb and lazy — and so impatient — that he could just kind of freak out from the moment he’s in office to the point that even your most laid back (white) Traditionalists might, just might at least look the other way if there was some sort of General Strike to bring down Trump.
As of right now, at least, it definitely looks like late 2024, early 2025 is going to s u c k.
I don’t know what to tell you, folks, other than maybe “Watch out for that last step.” Now, in February of 2024, it definitely seems as though the only way we prevent Trump from being POTUS again is some sort of Black Swan event that I just can’t predict.
I continue to believe that people are looking at the potential of a Second Trump Administration all wrong. It will be so tyrannical and such an aberration compared to anything we’ve ever seen before that I don’t think it’s “optimism bias” to think the reaction to Trump’s ham-handed tyranny could be just as unprecedented.
As I keep saying, America 2025 is NOT Germany 1933.
At a minimum, it will take time for Trump to build out an SA-like infrastructure to remind Blues to keep their heads down and mouths shut. I keep musing on the idea that Trump is somehow deposed in a Glorious Revolution, then that, in turn prompts a Second American Civil War.
That, in turn, causes World War 3.
And, yet, I just can’t predict the future. No one can. And there is every reason to believe that either Biden is peacefully re-elected, or Trump really does get to be a tyrannical autocrat and we all just lulz it.
Though I do think that about 1 million smug Twitter liberals will leave the country once it becomes clear that Trump is actually going to do what he was elected to do in 2016 — be an autocrat.
A number of things are coming together at the same time to destabilize the United States. Everything from negative polarization to income inequality is eating away at the very fabric of the greatest nation in world history.
I just don’t know if we’re going to make it through the 2024 presidential silly season.
There is every reason to believe we will, but even if we do, we could very well peacefully slide into autocracy under a second Trump Administration. They key thing for me is the Republican Party wants an autocratic white Christian ethnostate sooooo fucking bad that, in a sense, Trump is all that stands in the way of the getting their goal.
Not because he’ll lose, but because if he wins, he could very well rile everyone up so much in the ham-handed manner in which he tries to establish that autocratic white Christian ethnostate that there’s a “Glorious Revolution” by Blues and he’s deposed — not that I’m advocating anything!
Anyway. A lot is going wrong in the US right now. But for my worst fears to come true — that the US would collapse into revolution and / or civil war — a lot more shit would have to go wrong.
Hopefully, at a minimum, we’ll just peacefully turn into an autocracy and I’ll figure out some way to leave the country.
Trump staggered through four years of a horrible, chaotic presidency. I’ve heard at least one person say that they will vote for Trump because they’re afraid of a Kamala Harris presidency.
The more I think about that fear, the more racist it sounds.
Harris is not great for various reasons, including her youth an inexperience. But if she did become POTUS, she would rise to the occasion — something that Trump did not and could not do.
So, I will vote for Joe Biden in 2024 confident that if — God forbid — something happens to him that President Harris will grow into the role. She’s got far more experience — and is far more stable — than Trump was when he came into office in 2017.
You must be logged in to post a comment.