First Looks category archive

H. Rider Haggard:

I do not believe in violence; it is the last resort of fools.

When I started this in the early days of the blogosphere, comment spam was a thing. Then, as “social” media began to attract everybody’s eyeballs, as the saying goes, the amount of comment spam died out. It never went away, but it became relatively rare.

There’s been a sharp uptick in comment spam the past few weeks (indeed, I deleted over two dozen spam comments yesterday). Fortunately, thanks to Akismet, almost none of it makes to your screens.

It’s almost all for on-line gambling sites and apps.

This is not a good thing.

Via Job’s Anger.

I’m watching an episode of Midsomer Murders which involves what the British refer to as a “heritage railroad” (we’d call it a steam line). In it, an actor playing the part of a railroad employee repeatedly steps on rails.

I worked for the railroad for many years. Railroad workers do not step on rails.

Rails, at least those frequently traversed by trains, are slippery.

You can slip and fall and, in the worst case scenario, get run over by a train.

By the way, you can catch that episode on Tubi. If you like mystery shows, you will like Midsomer Murders.

And, if you like Midsomer Murders, you will really like Caroline Graham’s Inspector Barnaby novels, which inspired Midsomer Murders. (I can’t call them mystery stories. They are truly novels that just happen to involve murders.)

Accountable? We’ll see you in court.

Nippon Life Insurance has sued OpenAI in federal court in Chicago, alleging that OpenAI engaged in UPL, that is, the unauthorized practice of law. The basis? ChatGPT advised the settling plaintiff in the underlying disability case that she could reopen that dismissed lawsuit. (She had a case of settler’s remorse, not that any settling party has ever felt that way.) Nippon’s complaint alleges that ChatGPT is not an attorney and therefore cannot give legal advice.

Much more–and much more disturbing–AI legal antics at the link.

Afterthought:

Maybe we are not facing the singularity after all.

It’s looking more and more like we are facing the AI slopilarity.

Off to drink liberally.

Via Job’s Anger.

Subversively seductive? At the Psychology Today website, Darren J. Edwards argues that AI may be leading us into its own version of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. A snippet:

In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley imagined a society controlled not through force, but through engineered pleasure. It presented a dystopian, futuristic society where human beings were genetically engineered, socially conditioned, and psychologically managed to maintain stability and happiness.

Methinks his piece is well worth the few minutes it will to read it.

A picture is worth.

Afterthought:

It’s one thing if you need it for your job or live on a farm, but, really, how many six packs are you planning to pick up at the 7-11?

At the Washington Monthly, Robert J. Shapiro reads the writings of Hannah Arendt and hears a rhyme. A snippet:

MAGA is not the first mass movement to endorse violence in the service of its leader’s aspirations. If history is a valuable guide to understanding this moment, the most penetrating historical analysis is, famously, Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, which has been widely discussed since Trump rose to power.

(snip)

Her 1951 analysis of the movements that propelled the rise of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes begins with the insight that their followers were not a typical interest group seeking benefits or rights. Instead, they’re individuals who feel that recent disruptive societal changes cost them their status and are brought together by a charismatic leader who exploits their shared sense of injury.

The leader of these movements offers lies to explain why his followers lost their place, claims he can restore it given enough power, and, equally important, manipulates his followers’ anger to support violence committed at his behest.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

____________________-

*Mark Twain.

Warning: Mild language.

Off to drink liberally.

SFgate’s Drew Magary went to see the Melania movie so we don’t have to.

. . . but be sure to dress apropriately.

Ira Hyman looks at stories coming out of ICE’s occupation of Minnesota and reminds us that

Presenting false information as equal to true information is a form of disinformation. Focus on the truth.

Michael in Norfolk sums it up nicely.