No doubt readers have had enough fantasizing about archaeology and the role of humans. Today the post is about the behavior that keeps humans and communities bound to one another. This bonding is not limited to humans but also includes many of our mammal friends.
Mariner’s daughter, an excellent published author, came across a poem that she shared with her family:
have my seat,” “Go ahead – you first,” “I like your hat.”
It is remarkable how this poem calms us and makes us feel secure. Our interpersonal behavior, at its most intimate and respectful moments, is the strong glue that holds society together. These simple, often automatic comments are what strengthens complex ideas like “equality”, “all men are created equal” and “one man, one vote”. These gestures and comments should reflect out into our political behavior.
The presence of weaponized politics is the absence of small gestures that are above ideology.These gestures and comments also lie beneath bonding – a desire to unify and find security in belonging by sharing similarities rather than differences. Everyone likes to be respected, to feel valued, to feel uniquely important. How powerful is the effect of offering a seat on the bus to an unknown person. Do you know they murdered their mother? Of course not but bonding goes beyond prejudice, beyond race, beyond station. Bonding is the glue of civilization.
It is our human responsibility to sustain community by acting in the manner of Danusha Lameris’ poem.
Ancient Mariner
Homo’s predetermined job for Planet Earth history
It was just yesterday in Earth years that the first placental primate emerged, about 87 million years ago. It was the beginning of the Mammalian Age. Over those centuries, mammals took many paths to become all the warmblooded, childbearing creatures that are around today; for example, mice, gorillas, reindeer, panthers, lions, beavers, monkeys, cattle, squirrels, bears, horses, gophers, whales, rabbits, sheep, wolves, warthogs, etc.
Dendropithecus turned up 13 million years ago, an early ancestor to a new line called Apes. Gibbons diverged from the line of great apes some 18–12 million years ago and that of orangutans (subfamily Ponginae) diverged from other great apes at about 14 million years ago.
African hominids diverged from orangutans about 12 million years ago. Hominins (including precursors of humans and the Australopithecine and Panina subtribes) parted from the Gorllini tribe (gorillas) between 8 and 9 million years ago; Australopithecine (including the extinct biped ancestors of humans) separated from the Pan genus (containing chimpanzees and bonobos) 4–7 million years ago. The Homo genus emerged as H. habilis over 2 million years ago. To cut ancestry short, 300,000 years ago, the early relatives of Homo sapiens arrived.
The point is this: Homo sapiens and all its fellow mammals, some plant eaters, some scavengers, some herding, some predators, are in this Mammalian Age together. In an era that began 87 million years ago, it has become clear that humans have a predetermined role that in just 300,000 years mammals are disappearing at increasing rates. 10,000 years ago, wild mammals represented 99% – today only1% represent wild mammals. The rest have been scavenged big time by Homo who represents 32% of mammals along with 67% represented by homo-owned mammalian livestock.
Are humans just a pawn in the planet’s galactic history? Are we another version of the giant dinosaurs who were bringing the Pleistocene Age to a close when the asteroid struck? The planet has few rules life forms must follow; one of them is ‘survival of the fittest’ Twice in the far distant past the planet wiped out all life with ice and with volcanic reorganization of the earth itself.
After an unusually long period of stable, supportive weather, the planet has begun to respond to another Homo behavior, carbonization, to begin raising the surface temperature of the planet. Further, Earth’s molten core is becoming active. Does Earth have plans to begin reorganizing the continents? It is predicted that Earth will undergo a global ice age in 200,000 years.
What does the future look like? Homo will have to wait to see what future versions of AI and chatGPT have to tell us. Is AI part of the next age sans mammals?
Ancient Mariner
Our career molds our empathy
Readers know mariner’s distaste for the invasion of privacy by new technologies embedded in our vehicles, budgets, social life and that of our children as well. Perhaps his unusual resistance can be traced back to his career.
He has had dozens of jobs from paper boy and soda jerk to preacher, parole officer and computer system consultant. The longest career was as a freelance consultant hired by corporations to install computer upgrades – thirty years. He never was wanting for the next contract because he ran a stable project that met its goals. One would think that such a consultant would have to be a computer expert and indeed he had a major in computer science but not one in computer engineering.
In fact, what made mariner successful in project management was his previous experience as a preacher and a parole officer. Mariner did have an associate or two who were computer engineers and coding specialists which made it possible for him to manage the difficult part of the project: people. He had learned a technique that creates team ownership. Each project worker was assigned to an eight to ten member group; each member owned a segment that was an integrated segment such that the other workers had a role in the worker’s success. Mariner was always present at these group meetings playing the role of coach and at times, decision maker but never taking away segment ownership. In the end, the group managed itself.
But the transition in the corporate power structure caused by a new computer system was often tragic. Employees who had worked there for many years were told they would be laid off; workers were transferred to lesser jobs and hopeful careers were interrupted. coders and technicians who were unfamiliar with the new technology were pushed into dead end corners of operations. In larger corporations, there were fierce political battles between vice presidents and key managers because their political power, created by the amount of data they controlled, was no longer needed. Everyone will own all the data.
Did the reader catch the phrase ‘everyone will own all the data’? Were the upgrades in mariner’s projects ancestors to Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok? The major reason for mariner’s projects was to move from a network where the workstation computer created data that was uploaded every night to data storage devices where it could be integrated with other workstation data; the core work data remained in the workstation to be managed by a network of employees. Hence, a supervisor, manager or vice president was important because they managed (owned) the data in their unit’s workstations.
The effect of his projects forced a reorganization of the corporate workforce without, he suggests, any grace or feelings about a large segment of displaced workers and managers. In his projects, the workstation became a data entry terminal little more complex than an ATM.
Now, long out of his career, he understands the subtleties of data ownership and how it creates, metaphorically, a democratic operation. Today, one’s private computer – much more personal and life-important, is being taken away to live in the clouds of the AI corporate data banks. Now everyone owns all the data – including the reader’s data. The reader’s computer is just a data entry terminal.
Democracy will have a hard time existing in an AI world.
Ancient Mariner
The Fourth horseman of the Apocalypse
In a recent post, mariner mentioned four forces of nature that would determine the future of Homo sapiens. They were global warming, population, disappearing resources and AI. This post offers resources that help understand why AI may not be the blessing of other advances like the automobile, airplanes, can openers, electric lights, etc.
Often mentioned is the movie Matrix which has become a movie series. It is about the battle a few independent humans have against an AI brain that totally controls the human race; humans are kept alive in caskets so central AI intelligence can use them as batteries; These humans are fed a fake reality that makes them believe they are living a normal life.
Another frequently mentioned source is a PBS documentary ‘Hacking the Brain’ about the powers of AI and how, if controlled, AI can be useful but the documentary also displays the dangers of AI in its ability to manipulate humans even as they think they are living normal lives.
One source mariner hasn’t mentioned in a while is ‘The Social Dilemma’ available on Netflix. Largely, it is an interview of AI experts and managers who have left the AI corporations because of the immoral and intensely capitalistic policies exercised by corporations collectively known as Silicon Valley and which generate all the social media content with ulterior motives.
As to mariner’s prediction of Armageddon, AI is not a tool for making life better. There is an element of improvement reflected in better health care, resource management and supply chain efficiency but the AI technology is not controlled by anyone but the corporations themselves.
As it stands, social media can start wars, erroneously destroy careers, turn gossip into national policy, etc. – and does this without government restraint, without individual control of personal information, without total control of AI intrusion into economic sectors, and without due diligence to protect against hackers and international political abuse.
It is an area of the future which has yet to show its true colors. We will just have to wait and see how things turn out.
Shades of Matrix.
Ancient Mariner
What does eternity feel like?
For many centuries, research suggests that since the earliest humans, there has been a fascination about eternity. It’s easy to understand that the TV will run forever unless it is turned off. That’s because it indeed can be turned off. Eternity is oblivious to human perceptions of time. Waiting in a line to use the bathroom may seem an eternity but no matter what happens, there is a finite conclusion so waiting in line is not eternity. Eternity has no end.
So what does eternity feel like? Religions speak of great societies in eternity, an eternity ruled, by the way, by human perceptions that have emotions – that is, living human emotions. All well and good but what does uninhabited eternity feel like?
Staring at the stars may be a way to feel eternity – if one can press beyond them and feel the endlessness beyond them. It is possible to look at loved ones in a family and sense the continuity provided by an eternity that allows for continuous existence.
Not intending to be quixotic, mariner can sense eternity by listening to Frankie Laine singing ‘Ghost Riders in the sky’. On the one hand, there is a human circumstance to provide focus. On the other hand, one can see beyond the riders and perceive endlessness. No stars get in the way or conjured heavens attached to the future – just empty eternity and the riders never stopping for rest at a human rest stop, on and on and on they ride.
One can sense that the riders may never be seen again.
To watch Frankie Laine, checkout the link below. You will need a password to YouTube. Or, you may search YouTube on a streaming TV.
Ancient Mariner
Scary
Mariner stopped by to visit with Nosey Mole yesterday. He discovered that Nosey had blocked all his tunnel entrances. Then mariner read the headline on one of his news headline emails: The republicans in Congress have submitted a bill that would allow only republicans as eligible to vote for the Speaker of the House.
Will Donald really become our first dictator? He has said a time or two that if he won, there wouldn’t be any more elections.
The next vote for Congressman is two years away. It may be the citizen’s last chance for sustaining a democracy.
Ancient Mariner
Our electronic Books of Knowledge
Metaphorically, in the last post about the distant future, mariner borrowed a Musk tourist rocket. In this post, he takes a ride on the fact tractor, that heavily geared pursuit vehicle most of us need to delve into truth, reality and comprehension (TRC).
Today, the tractor goes by many names but two are prevalent and represent the only publicly handy sources for TRC: Wikipedia and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). There are many, many other TRC internet sites and publications but typically, they are known to fewer searchers and often have privacy procedures.
Only the two mentioned sites honor the factual standards of that time when TRC was available only in books. How many readers had a twenty-volume ‘Book of Knowledge’ reference when they were young? Mariner still has his, published in 1938, and the distance to the moon and stars was represented in an image of railroad trains setting off on trips to the Universe.
Both Wikipedia and PBS have fact-checking and nuance-rinsing requirements before broadcasting. PBS has a large library of insightful documentaries about every thought under the Sun – including the Sun. Further, PBS news editors do their best to represent today’s cacophony in a neutral manner. Wikipedia will print at the top of an article whether there needs to be some further editing by contributors.
Except for highly specialized subjects, jumping on the search engine or television to do some dependable research finds little to be confident about TRC beyond Wikipedia and PBS.
But today they need our help in a serious, continued survival way. They need subscribers to help pay the bills. Mariner subscribes to both, otherwise he would be embarrassed given the number of times each day he accesses each. As readers may know, all US governments are as happy as a bunch of three-year-olds being let into a playroom; anything is subject to abuse. At risk is Federal funding that contributes to PBS overhead. It is a specified target for the circus performers in Washington.
Wikipedia, just like all of us, has been overrun by social media. It requires a lot more staff and automated crosschecking to keep the dinner dishes clean, metaphorically speaking.
So here is a chance to help out. Become a subscriber.
You do not need to mark this post as ‘trash’. It is the only request for you to help out two TRC information sources that we use every day.
Ancient Mariner
Nothing Personal
Mariner has lamented the present along with many of us, and the political collapses, the cultural stress brought on by modern travel, the plight of social media. But it is the big four {global warming, population, biomass and artificial intelligence) that will shape Homo sapiens’ long term future. While provoked by human history, they are no longer dependent on obnoxious human behavior. The big four now are on their own history track regardless of the misfortunes of politics, war and obsessive invention.
A snapshot of human wellbeing in the year 2125 will be in the hands of the Big Four:
⊕ GLOBAL WARMING. Even as scientists have begun to pursue new technologies to deal with carbon in the atmosphere, other perspectives may not be as ‘easily’ cured. Climate change, in terms of global weather patterns, does not dance only with carbon excess. Volcanoes and earthquakes play along more slowly, the Earth’s core is out of rotational sync enough that a magnetic polar reverse has begun and the Sun will join in every 11 years or so. Further, humans are playing carnival games but the earth is not a game. Earth is a large planet capable of Solar System behavior on its own terms (Humans must remember that in reality they own nothing; it all belongs to Mother Earth).
When it comes to natural resources versus population, there is a correlation:
⊕ POPULATION and BIOMASS. From National Geographic:
“The global population is currently about 7.3 billion. The UN estimates that by 2050, that number will grow to 9.7 billion. By 2100, 11.2 billion people will have to cram together on the Earth’s surface. These estimates outstrip last year’s projections by around 150 million people.”
From UN: “Biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution, deforestation, water and food shortage—these are all exacerbated by our huge and ever-increasing numbers. Our impact on the environment is a product of our consumption and our numbers.”
The impact of population and natural resources together has altered nature in many different ways. Take one very small example – vertebrates:
Ten Thousand years ago was just yesterday: Agricultural communities developed approximately 10,000 years ago when humans began to domesticate plants and animals. By domesticating species, many groups of people were able to build settled communities and transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle dependent on foraging and hunting for survival. [National Geographic]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. There is a recent documentary on Netflix featuring an interview with Bill Gates (What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates) where in the long term he cedes (without using words) that Homo sapiens will lose out to artificial intelligence.
Mariner is at a loss to predict the future. It is obvious that Homo is as susceptible to the forces of nature as any known collection of molecules, neutrons, atoms and electrons. Who knows, perhaps the rumors of space aliens traveling the universe is our future.
Do spaceships have recliners or battery chargers?
Ancient Mariner
The good life
Living here in a small town is very pleasant. The local folks are engaged in the practice of survival, that is, participating in community activities in various holiday celebrations, neighborly exchanges of small gifts and visitations, and multi-generational family gatherings. There is a positive air covering the town!
Nevertheless, only because few residents want to talk about it or still watch broadcast news and have ignored social media’s tendency to fawn upon itself, it is almost possible to separate community from national and world catastrophe. One forgets how pleasant normal life can be.
It’s amazing how many hobbies surface during the holidays. A service organization is building a tiny house for a veteran; the quilting club is turning out quilts for sale; several folks make their own holiday greeting cards – some quite exquisite; many choirs perform musical events around the county; there are Santa events in most public service agencies. Even Nosey Mole was seen wearing a Santa hat.
Appropriately, if not conveniently, the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful, and since we’ve no place to go let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
There is no doubt that a human’s emotional survival skills have evolved with significant intensity and purpose. Let us pray that increased disorder will not test them further.
Ancient Mariner
Forget Trump – watch Google
The identity of the evil dictator in the Matrix movie is now revealed: Google. Modern, top-of-the-line scientists have agreed that Homo sapiens will eventually vanish because science has discovered a way for AI to determine when to be pregnant and with what genome – without human intervention [perhaps these new creatures are the ones that will travel the universe as aliens]. But until then, it is Google’s intention to make humans no more in control of their lives than garden flowers can decide whose garden they will be planted in. The Axios article below gives the details:
“Google Gemini 2.0 — a major upgrade to the core workings of Google’s AI that the company launched today — is designed to help generative AI move from answering users’ questions to taking action on its own, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis tells Axios.
- “We were always working towards agent-based systems,” Hassabis said. “From the beginning, they were able to plan and then carry out actions and achieve objectives.”
- Hassabis said AI systems that can act as semi-autonomous agents also represent an important intermediate step on the path toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI that can match or surpass human capabilities.
- “If we think about the path to AGI, then obviously you need a system that can reason, break down problems and carry out actions in the world,” he said.”
Up to one-third of today’s stock market trades are run by computers without human intervention. But mariner wonders how a national or global economy would operate when the decisions are made by AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). This direction is so unfathomable that no one can predict human interactivity in the future – but it is inevitable.
It is as if we were a neanderthal person swooped up in a time bubble and dropped on today’s Times Square . . . .
Armageddon proceeds.
Ancient Mariner