More exceptionalism.

Always has been. If you believe that you are intrinsically superior to everyone else - the "lesser breeds without the Law" - naturally you resent anything they have or do. And you are constantly frightened that they might suddenly pop up and deprive you of your vast entitlements.

That's the logic that was used to justify the Korean and Vietnam wars. The "domino theory" - "if they win in Korea, they will win in India and Africa and eventually reach New York and take away some of the billionaires' assets to give to the poor".

Which would obviously be the end of civilisation.

Very true. It seems quite unlikely that the UK government has any information that China doesn't already know or couldn't easily obtain.

'“What I’m saying is that some Strap stuff was compromised and vast amounts of data classified as extremely secret and extremely dangerous for any foreign entity to control was compromised.

'“Material from intelligence services. Material from the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office. Things the government has to keep secret. If they’re not secret, then there are very, very serious implications for it"'.

Every time I hear about such very, very secret "material from intelligence services", it turns out to be something embarrassing that the government wants to keep from its own citizens. And of course we can never be told what the terribly secret information is, because it's so terribly secret. Possibly some dirty inside knowledge about who blew up Nord Stream (obviously the USA) or all the help given to the Kiev mob (with untold billions of UK taxpayers' money but without their permission).

It's safe to say that the UK government does not have any military secrets that would matter to China - or Russia. A sardine does not frighten a whale.

Unfortunately, capitalists (especially the most successful ones) loathe and detest competition. That's why markets always tend towards monopoly and/or monopsony. Microsoft and Amazon are shining examples. Also, I suspect, Oracle judging by Larry Ellison's bank account.

That's good practice when writing anything that any of your readers might not understand. You just have to provide the expansion at the first mention, which doesn't cost much time or space. There are so many acronyms, abbreviations, and in-jargon terms that it's very easy to get confused. And I hope Slashdot articles are sometimes read by people other than the regular suspects.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2F8billionangels.org%2Fear...

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdata.footprintnetwork.... (Click UK on map)

Indeed. The UK is already housing more than 4 times as many people as it could sustainably hold. Naturally there is increasing pressure on food, water, housing, and everything else. Together with growing hostility as people from different and violently clashing cultures are crammed together in the absurd belief that the pressure will somehow crush them into a homogeneous whole according to the wrongheaded "melting pot" theory.

Now that reality is making itself felt, what is left for the political class to do but blame everything on "climate change" and "Russia"? Their very nature makes it unthinkable for them ever to consider for a moment that they might have been wrong about anything.

However, in placing blame where it does not belong they are repeating the exact same mistake. There is no significant climate change, and Russia couldn't care less about the UK. Until they address the real problem - too many people of too disparate beliefs and assumptions - things will go on getting worse. Much worse.

James P. Hogan's second SF novel, "The Two Faces of Tomorrow" (1979) posits this exact problem. The solution, symmetrically enough, is not to nuke it from orbit but to put it in orbit with firewalls to keep it from escaping or communicating with anything else. A special space station is built where the AI is confined. Hogan, a clever and creative thinker as well as a qualified (ex-RAF) engineer, saw quite deeply into the dangers of AI - which have not really changed in the intervening 46 years although the technology has gone roaring ahead.

Recommended reading.

Why has the parent not been moderated down as far as possible?

I imagine the writer wasn't thinking of those phrases as metaphors at all - just ready-to-hand, top-of-the-barrel cliches. Repeating cliches is popular, and far easier than thinking. Of course it's not very useful and it certainly is unaesthetic.

I am going out of my way to find human-written content today. I will continue to do so. As I refuse to waste time and attention on anything that is not really good, I shall either avoid synthetic writings or find that some of them are so good that they are indistinguishable from the best human writing. In which case I shall enjoy them.

From the fourth paragraph of TFA:

"But other experts in a field where disagreement over our emergence on the planet is rife, say that the new study's conclusions are plausible but far from certain".

See? No consensus. Science is done by experiment, not by weighing the papers.

This is science. There is no consensus.

In other news, human beings and other animals can help draw oxygen out of the atmosphere and sequester some of it in bodily tissues.

Or... wait, is that actually news?

They are driven, mindlessly, to pile up riches far beyond any conceivable need. They seem unaware that in doing so they are just as much slaves to instinct as any "lower animal".

Perhaps they should consider the myth of King Midas. Also:

"And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God".
- Luke 12:15-21