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Comment Security teams usually stop caring when not paid (Score 1) 145

From: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vice.com%2Fen%2Farticl...
        ""The billionaires understand that they're playing a dangerous game," Rushkoff said. "They are running out of room to externalize the damage of the way that their companies operate. Eventually, there's going to be the social unrest that leads to your undoing."
        Like the gated communities of the past, their biggest concern was to find ways to protect themselves from the "unruly masses," Rushkoff said. "The question we ended up spending the majority of time on was: 'How do I maintain control of my security force after my money is worthless?'"
        That is, if their money is no longer worth anything -- if money no longer means power--how and why would a Navy Seal agree to guard a bunker for them?
        "Once they start talking in those terms, it's really easy to start puncturing a hole in their plan," Rushkoff said. "The most powerful people in the world see themselves as utterly incapable of actually creating a future in which everything's gonna be OK."

Comment Beyond a Jobless Recovery & Externalities (Score 0) 145

What I put together circa 2010 is becoming more and more relevant: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpdfernhout.net%2Fbeyond-... "This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery" mainly from a heterodox economic perspective. It emphasizes the implications of ideas by Marshall Brain and others that improvements in robotics, automation, design, and voluntary social networks are fundamentally changing the structure of the economic landscape. It outlines towards the end four major alternatives to mainstream economic practice (a basic income, a gift economy, stronger local subsistence economies, and resource-based planning). These alternatives could be used in combination to address what, even as far back as 1964, has been described as a breaking "income-through-jobs link". This link between jobs and income is breaking because of the declining value of most paid human labor relative to capital investments in automation and better design. Or, as is now the case, the value of paid human labor like at some newspapers or universities is also declining relative to the output of voluntary social networks such as for digital content production (like represented by this document). It is suggested that we will need to fundamentally reevaluate our economic theories and practices to adjust to these new realities emerging from exponential trends in technology and society."

Tangentially, since you mentioned coal, coal plants are discussed there as an example of the complex dynamics of technological and social change both creating and destroying jobs given externalities -- including from the laissez-faire capitalist economic imperative to privatize gains while socializing risks and costs :
      "Also, many current industries that employ large numbers of people (ranging from the health insurance industry, the compulsory schooling industry, the defense industry, the fossil fuel industry, conventional agriculture industry, the software industry, the newspaper and media industries, and some consumer products industries) are coming under pressure from various movements from both the left and the right of the political spectrum in ways that might reduce the need for much paid work in various ways. Such changes might either directly eliminate jobs or, by increasing jobs temporarily eliminate subsequent problems in other areas and the jobs that go with them (as reflected in projections of overall cost savings by such transitions); for example building new wind farms instead of new coal plants might reduce medical expenses from asthma or from mercury poisoning. A single-payer health care movement, a homeschooling and alternative education movement, a global peace movement, a renewable energy movement, an organic agriculture movement, a free software movement, a peer-to-peer movement, a small government movement, an environmental movement, and a voluntary simplicity movement, taken together as a global mindshift of the collective imagination, have the potential to eliminate the need for many millions of paid jobs in the USA while providing enormous direct and indirect cost savings. This would make the unemployment situation much worse than it currently is, while paradoxically possibly improving our society and lowering taxes. Many of the current justifications for continuing social policies that may have problematical effects on the health of society, pose global security risks, or may waste prosperity in various ways is that they create vast numbers of paid jobs as a form of make-work. ...
        Increasing mental health issues like depression and autism, and increasing physical health issues like obesity and diabetes and cancer, all possibly linked to poor nutrition, stress, lack of exercise, lack of sunlight and other factors in an industrialized USA (including industrial pollution), have meant many new jobs have been created in the health care field. So, for example, coal plants don't just create jobs for coal miners, construction workers, and plant operators, they also create jobs for doctors treating the results of low-level mercury pollution poisoning people and from smog cutting down sunlight. Television not only creates jobs for media producers, but also for health care workers to treat obesity resulting from sedentary watching behavior (including not enough sunlight and vitamin D) or purchasing unhealthy products that are advertised. ...
      Macroeconomics as a mathematical discipline generally ignores the issue of precisely how physical resources are interchangeable. Before this shift in economic thinking to a more resource-based view, that question of "how" things are transformed had generally been left to other disciplines like engineering or industrial chemistry (the actual physical alchemists of our age). For one thinking in terms of resources and ecology, the question of how nutrients cycle from farm to human to sewage and then back to farm as fertilizer might be as relevant as discussing the pricing of each of those items, like biologist John Todd explores as a form of ecological economics as it relates to mainstream business opportunities. People like Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter Lovins have written related books on the idea of natural capital. For another example, the question of exactly how coal-fired power plants might connect to human health and other natural capital was previously left to the health profession or the engineering profession before this transdisciplinary shift where economists, engineers, ecologists, health professionals, and people with other interests might all work together to understand the interactions. In the process of thinking through the interactions, considerations about creating healthy and enjoyable jobs can be included in the analysis of costs and benefits to various parties including various things that are often ignored as externalities. So, a simple analysis [in the past] might indicate coal was cheaper than solar power, but a more complete analysis, like attempted in the book Brittle Power might indicate the value in shifting economic resources to the green energy sector as ultimately cheaper when all resource costs, human costs, and other opportunities are considered. These sorts of analyses have long happened informally through the political process such as with recent US political decisions moving towards a ban of new coal-fired power plants. Jane Jacobs, in her writings on the economies of cities, is one example of trying to think through the details of how specific ventures in a city affects the overall structure of that city's economy, including the creation of desirable local jobs through import replacement. A big issue of resource-based economics is to formalize this decision making process somehow, where the issue of creating good jobs locally would be weighed as one factor among many. ..."

Comment Re:It's too late baby... (Score 1) 110

Until you accept the reality that it's too late to fix/solve the problem, you are not dealing with reality. Once you are dealing with reality, you can start making rational decisions about what actions you can take to improve your personal situation and to keep from making things even worse than they already are.

Comment Re:Humans are doomed (Score 1) 110

It will cause your children discomfort if they are under 50.

Higher insurance costs.
Higher food prices.
Possible loss of some food selection (really... that's already happened since I was a child but it's more driven by corporate excessive profit seeking where they will give 12 feet of shelf space to their most profitable product and simply shut out profitable but less profitable products that used to share about 6 feet of shelf space out of that 12).
Increased likelihood of suffering a tropical disease or parasite (nasty one up from central america got a 65 year old friend of mine 4 years ago from a mosquito bite).

But our kids face other challenges, like reduced job opportunities due to AI, the declining marriage rate, the declining population rate (which is probably bad for you and me but good for them).

Comment Re:Here are some whingers on being replaced by AI (Score 1) 41

Informative story. Mod parent up.

I just submitted your link as a Slashdot story: https://f6ffb3fa-34ce-43c1-939d-77e64deb3c0c.atarimworker.io/firehose....

What I put together circa 2010 is becoming more and more relevant:
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpdfernhout.net%2Fbeyond-...
"This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery" mainly from a heterodox economic perspective. It emphasizes the implications of ideas by Marshall Brain and others that improvements in robotics, automation, design, and voluntary social networks are fundamentally changing the structure of the economic landscape. It outlines towards the end four major alternatives to mainstream economic practice (a basic income, a gift economy, stronger local subsistence economies, and resource-based planning). These alternatives could be used in combination to address what, even as far back as 1964, has been described as a breaking "income-through-jobs link". This link between jobs and income is breaking because of the declining value of most paid human labor relative to capital investments in automation and better design. Or, as is now the case, the value of paid human labor like at some newspapers or universities is also declining relative to the output of voluntary social networks such as for digital content production (like represented by this document). It is suggested that we will need to fundamentally reevaluate our economic theories and practices to adjust to these new realities emerging from exponential trends in technology and society."

Submission + - The workers who lost their jobs to AI (theguardian.com) 1

Paul Fernhout writes: "From a radio host replaced by avatars to a comic artist whose drawings have been copied by Midjourney, how does it feel to be replaced by a bot?" by Charis McGowan in the Guardian.

Comment Re:It's too late baby... (Score 2) 110

Yea.. really it is. It's been too late for quite a while now.

I'm not saying don't do your best to address it. But we were supposed to be down to adding 29 gigatons of carbon annually by now and instead we are up to adding 45 gigatons of carbon annually next year.

And since every 1,000 gigatons roughly equates to +1C, we are now putting enough carbon out to raise the temperature every 22 years.

And those projections are ignoring the *massive* methane sublimation that's already been underway a few years.

So, every projection you've read about the future is tremendously over optimistic.

And let's not get into the way the rain bands have already drifted towards the poles about 50 to 80 miles and it's implication for our current breadbowls.

Nor the way tropical diseases and parasites have been drifting pole wards.

Even cutting carbon output will "temporarily" (i.e. for several decades) increase temperatures further.

Comment Re:Mass Migration (Score 1) 110

FYI:
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report and other scientific sources, here are general estimates of likely average sea level rise per decade from 2020 to 2100:

Sea Level Rise Projections (2020-2100)
2020-2030: Approximately 3-4 mm/year, resulting in a total rise of about 30-40 mm (3-4 cm)
2030-2040: Approximately 3-5 mm/year, leading to about 30-50 mm (3-5 cm) over the decade
2040-2050: Approximately 4-7 mm/year, accumulating around 40-70 mm (4-7 cm)
2050-2060: Approximately 5-10 mm/year, leading to about 50-100 mm (5-10 cm)
2060-2070: Approximately 6-12 mm/year, resulting in about 60-120 mm (6-12 cm)
2070-2080: Approximately 7-15 mm/year, totaling about 70-150 mm (7-15 cm)

And NASA's actual measurements of a "Global average sea level rose by about 0.3 inches (0.76 centimeters) from 2022 to 2023" back up the IPCC projections for the current time frame (a rate of about 3.81cm vs a projection of 3-4cm).

When the north saharan wind and sand and various other confounding and boosting factors line up, there will be more category 5 hurricanes ( and more than spin up from tropical storm to cat 5 faster than they did historically-- so no warning).

And the insurance company's know this. They have doubled, tripled, and *even refused to write policies at any rate* for not just "beach front property" but *any* property within 100 miles of the coast (and near many internal continental river basins as well due to increased flood and extreme flood risk).

This makes me recall the fact that most religious dog breeders believe in genetics and evolution. Because they have to deal with the reality of genetic on a daily basis in their business.

Comment Re:Humans are doomed (Score 1) 110

But we know climate change deniers will ignore any studies and data presented.

Heck, there's an entire channel devoted to debunking climate change denial and people (often) just ignore what he says and post blatant misinformation (and to the point: Often based on religious beliefs).

potholer54: A retired geologist.
Here's a good starting video
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...

Comment It's too late baby... (Score 1) 110

I see the ice caps melting,
The oceans rising high,
We thought we had more time,
But now the truth won't lie.
Storms are getting stronger,
The droughts are in our face,
It's hard to find a refuge,
In our once familiar space.

It's too late, baby,
The planet's burning bright.
We turned away too often,
Now we're losing the fight.
It's too late, baby,
To turn back the clocks now,
We've forged our own destruction,
And there's no way to vow.

Tropical diseases spreading,
They make their way on flights,
Parasites and infections,
Filling our sleepless nights.
People flee their homelands,
With nowhere left to stay,
Carrying their stories,
In the hope of a new day.

It's too late, baby,
The planet's burning bright.
We turned away too often,
Now we're losing the fight.
It's too late, baby,
To turn back the clocks now,
We've forged our own destruction,
And there's no way to vow.

And all the dreams we cherished,
Are fading in the haze,
With every step we wander,
Through this endless maze.
We can't ignore the shadows,
As the world starts to fray,
And deep inside we know it,
We've lost our way today.

It's too late, baby,
The planet's burning bright.
We turned away too often,
Now we're losing the fight.
It's too late, baby,
To turn back the clocks now,
We forged our own destruction,
And there's no way to vow.

It's too late...
It's too late...
And we don't know how.

Comment It's too late, baby... (Score 1) 110

I see the ice caps melting,
The oceans rising high,
We thought we had more time,
But now the truth won't lie.
Storms are getting stronger,
The droughts are in our face,
It's hard to find a refuge,
In our once familiar space.

Itâ(TM)s too late, baby,
The planet's burning bright.
We turned away too often,
Now weâ(TM)re losing the fight.
Itâ(TM)s too late, baby,
To turn back the clocks now,
We've forged our own destruction,
And there's no way to vow.

Tropical diseases spreading,
They make their way on flights,
Parasites and infections,
Filling our sleepless nights.
People flee their homelands,
With nowhere left to stay,
Carrying their stories,
In the hope of a new day.

Itâ(TM)s too late, baby,
The planet's burning bright.
We turned away too often,
Now we're losing the fight.
Itâ(TM)s too late, baby,
To turn back the clocks now,
We've forged our own destruction,
And there's no way to vow.

And all the dreams we cherished,
Are fading in the haze,
With every step we wander,
Through this endless maze.
We canâ(TM)t ignore the shadows,
As the world starts to fray,
And deep inside we know it,
Weâ(TM)ve lost our way today.

Itâ(TM)s too late, baby,
The planet's burning bright.
We turned away too often,
Now weâ(TM)re losing the fight.
Itâ(TM)s too late, baby,
To turn back the clocks now,
We forged our own destruction,
And there's no way to vow.

Itâ(TM)s too late...
Itâ(TM)s too late...
And we donâ(TM)t know how.

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