#not a single time in my life has an algorithm accurately guessed at my taste.

[dead-loch]

AO3 is an incredibly simple website to use…..

Because it’s a major cultural shift

Dude, aside from people just going “ugh, kids”, the whole point is that the assumption that sites have algorithms is a sign of how the entire internet has been ruined. It’s a major cultural shift and a terrible one.

AO3 is the opposite of obscure in fanfic fandom, and its entire existence is political and an act of resistance.

No shit people react to cluelessness about how it sorts content: how it sorts content is a conscious ethical statement.

And to answer this other person’s comment:

Wattpad, dude. No separate index by fandom, no see everything by date, just a massive fic section and tags that show the 1k most recent or 1k most popular.

Nearly every major fic site has worked something like AO3 until we get to the modern app hell that is Wattpad.

[viktorbezic]

Double Dribbble: Losing Out To Homogenous Design

I’m not deliberately trying to single out dribbble here. Dribbble is typically used as the poster child and a culprit for homogenous design. Not gonna lie. I wanted to use the title Double Dribbble, while also highlighting what happens when we all use the same sources of online inspiration. IE. The sea of sameness effect. After the demise of FFFFound where I’d uncover all sorts of new visuals, there were no platforms that provided serendipitous discovery until Are.na came along. But getting offline, going through old books, traveling, making trips to galleries, looking at things from different disciplines helps. If your only source of inspiration are the most popular Dribbble shots, or the top UI Pinterest boards, algorithmically served, of course, it’s very likely you’ll come up with something that looks just like the sum total of what you’ve consumed. Ideas come from different recombinations of existing ideas and knowledge. This is true of all creative disciplines. The more unique the combination, the higher the chance of leading to a significant breakthrough (1).

There are many culprits from an over-reliance on data, a focus on utilitarianism, the re-use of the same frameworks, and designing templates without a feel for the content. Why am I writing about this? Hasn’t this piece been done before? Sure it has. But every now again I get bored to tears by digital and UI design and go on the hunt for folks who are pushing the boundary. It’s also a good exercise to re-ignite my own interest in a design discipline that I’ve been involved some, way shape or form over the past decade. I share a similar sentiment to Marc Kremers, “Too many sites are just exercises in good, generically appealing taste. Anyone can do that. It’s super boring.” (2)

I’ve reflected on how we got here not only to push myself but to also highlight some of the pieces I go back to and re-read. Disclaimer: I’ve been guilty of going the templated approach on side projects I’ve launched. I also use a bought template on Tumblr. I’m in the process of rolling my own. So I’m part of the problem as well.

How we got here.

Clean, workable, well-designed interfaces are the baseline. When you get to this point, you’re not finished. There’s still more to be done. I’ve re-read Yaaron Schoen’s piece “In Defense of Homogenous Design” and do agree with some of Schoen’s points. There are some learned behaviors and existing digital design paradigms. Examples include, pull to refresh, swipe to dismiss, underlined hyperlinks, etc. The argument as Schoen presents them go something like this: “This is great. We’re teaching people how to use digital products and if your digital product looks similar, all good. Jackets look the same, we know where the pockets are.” It makes sense, but my gut feeling is this line of thinking can stop us from really evolving a design (3). I know some restraint needs to be exercised so care needs to be taken as you select the right opportunities to level up on. There needs to be some expressive elements and a human touch. If all we did were the basics we wouldn’t need designers. All we would need are the UI frameworks to paint by numbers with.

We can’t always stick to existing paradigms.

There are instances when we can’t always stick to existing paradigms. One example was highlighted in a designer news thread by Renee P. that goes something like this: a decade ago people hadn’t heard of “pull to refresh” or “swipe to dismiss.” These new paradigms had to be invented (4). But with every new platform, the paradigms will need to be created or advance as the technology evolves. When I was working at a large holding company owned digital agency, I remember a VR commerce project we made for the high-end retailer. We’d demo it to our clients and teach them an entirely new paradigm for VR navigation (5). Staring at a diamond for a certain amount of time to advance the experience. Once folks learned it, it became second nature. I’m not big on VR but thought it was a good example from first-hand experience. There’s a host of new technologies we are still defining interfaces for. Some that have no UIs at all as with conversational interfaces and multiple dimensions when it comes to AR and mixed reality, etc. In the context of new platforms, screen-based interfaces may need to be recontextualized as people learn new behaviors and paradigms.

The other reason to break an existing paradigm is to infuse some sort of character into the product and put a unique spin on it. The question goes something like this, back to Schoen’s Jacket Principle, what if I don’t want to wear the same jacket as someone else, or design one like someone else? If I had a to design one, I might put extra pockets someplace else. Maybe there’s an act of discovery there. It’s about a point of view and bringing something unique to the table. As Alan Kay stated, “Point of View is worth 80 IQ points”. Which leads me to my next point.

An over-reliance on utilitarianism creates forgettable products.

Brett Bergeron, Creative Director at the digital product design studio This Also, presents an argument in his piece on “Good Enough Design” that we no longer have major constraints that bind us to just focusing on utilitarianism. And by not injecting personality into a digital product you fail to keep people’s attention. “More than ever, we are at a place in technology where interfaces can be utilitarian and emotionally expressive at the same time.” Bergeron uses This Also’s Google Dots case study as one of the examples. Injecting the search giant’s digital ecosystem with personality with the use of playful animations. Through an expressive logomark people understood when Google was doing something magical for them. He goes on to note that by not going beyond functional design a lot of products fall into the usable but forgettable category. A reason needs to be given to keep a product installed and opened again. As Bergeron notes, It’s worthwhile infusing the product with character so it’s differentiated. As a result, it protects the initial investment in building it (6).

Solely relying on web metrics discounts the team’s intuition and experience.

It’s been shown time an and again that a lot of digital metrics are bullshit. Especially with the increasing levels of bot traffic and fraudulent media buys. If you don’t have a core community of people using your product and you are heavily relying on media buys you may have a harder time trusting your metrics. Numerous studies are out with numbers showcasing billions of lost ad dollars to bots and click farms. The former CEO of Reddit came out confirming how bad the problem has become. Even Facebook isn’t able to identify genuine numbers.

You can’t do without metrics. We need them but it’s a single data point that needs to be paired with feedback from your community, user tests, research and any information to help set the appropriate context. Unfortunately, too many times I’ve seen clients afraid to make calls or provide their own point of view and instead fall back on metrics as a cover your ass tactic. “The numbers said so.” Also, let’s hypothetically say web metrics were accurate and bots didn’t exist. To use them exclusively to design anything results in sterile outcomes.

When folks do A/B or multivariate tests it’s typically done as a best effort approach. We question the design more than we do the science behind the testing and the reliability of the tests. It’s the combination of data (from multiple sources) and intuition together. Not taking the design team’s years of intuition and experience in coming up with a solution is a miss. Lastly, metrics are used to optimize for the local maximum. To make incremental improvements to an existing design. They can’t tell you whether or not you need a whole new design altogether.

Doing what you know will work.

There are many reasons why we fall into this trap. The independent digital designer and author Paul Jarvis attributes it to being victims of our own success. “Sometimes successful work can lead to less innovation, and then the real making stops. You become more like a factory production line than a meaningful creator.” We fall back on what works because it’s comfortable. Not only that, but we’d like to re-use as much work from the last time to get to the finish line faster. Do that enough you stunt your skills and growth, and start to lose touch. Boredom slowly sets in. This doesn’t mean we can’t leverage design patterns. It’s about determining how best to apply them (7).

Lack of diversity in thinking and experiences.

The digital artist and game designer, Morgane Santos not only points out that we are making more or less the same thing, but there’s also a cultural element here at play as well. IE. “The Designer Daves” of the world. Male, black wardrobe, 5-panel cap. The lack of people diversity in the digital design world produces one point of view. Diversity matters in producing work that’s different. Numerous studies show this. As Santos notes, “So, this whole designing with empathy thing? It literally cannot happen if all designers have the same background, the same look, the same style.” (8)

Marc Kremers echoed a similar sentiment and also related it back to the culture of being a designer, “I think designers naturally just want to fit in, have a nice, cute life, do nice, cute things. Work hard, be nice to people. Read Kinfolk. Raw denim. Beards. Flat Whites. Nice fonts, nice illustrations, nice design. Go with the flow. Just good, tasteful things, experiences, and activities. And before you know it, your life is an Instagram feed, literally indistinguishable to any other designer’s nice Instagram feed. You melted into the digital soup. I don’t know if this rant makes any sense, but I guess my awareness or fear of this singularity is just naturally percolating in my work. I’m a nice guy though.” (9)

This is an excellent reminder to collaborate with folks who aren’t exactly like you or at least to reach out for feedback and perspectives from more diverse groups. It takes effort. It’s way too easy to talk to folks that are just like you.

Disregarding Content

Another issue is not taking a holistic view of what we are designing for. Especially when it comes to content. I’ve listened to an Executive Creative Director once tell a team, “We’re great at making beautiful boxes without anything to put in them.” Very organized and thoughtful experience design without any regard for a greater concept, narrative or developing a paradigm that the best suits the content. Travis Gertz in ”Design Machines: How to Survive the Digital Apocalypse”, highlights the perils of not taking content and it’s unique needs to into consideration.

Gertz compares digital design to editorial design and highlights the emotive qualities editorial design historically has. The divergence between the disciplines is in the following areas: How systems are designed, How content is treated, and how we collaborate. In digital design, we nerd out on our CSS responsive grid frameworks, design systems and obsess over style guides and pattern libraries. The goal is typically to design for maximum template efficiency and component reuse. Unfortunately, this is where things end. In editorial design, the philosophy was slightly different. Editorial design systems are made for variation, not prescription.

Gertz also elaborates on how content is treated in the process. It’s not about content first or content last. It’s about the content’s connection to the design. In editorial design its standard practice for content creators and editors to work hand in hand while designing the system. Content development doesn’t come at a later stage to be plugged in once the design is done. It’s just as important as design and engineering. When digital products are built in an assembly line fashion and the boxes are built before the content exists we’ve missed an opportunity.

With the added complexity in digital design over editorial design, other design disciplines were created. User experience design was needed so that the flow of a site, application or product worked. As Gertz alludes to, this is another step in the assembly line where content isn’t carefully considered as there’s not enough collaboration between the creative disciplines. In digital design, a heavy emphasis is placed on dividing up roles by the stages of a project to gain efficiencies from each of the design disciplines. Unfortunately, this created more silos. As compared to editorial design. Where editorial designers knew the design stack from a system-level and how it laddered up to the expression of each piece of content.

Gertz boils down the problem to poor collaboration and a disregard for content. I know this type of tighter collaboration would be harder to scale, but a more editorial lens on things would help guide teams on what should be produced. There’s no need to create a component library of 30 components as a “just in case measure” if the current content only needs 5 of them (10).

Have a concept.

This is critical in other design disciplines. In digital design sometimes we can get away with not having a concept because if the thing works, no matter how basic or boring, you can check the box and tell everyone it works. Or you can fool yourself and everyone else with the cop-out that it’s an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). I remember being part of a large scale multi-brand platform redesign team. We had our very intelligent, engineering-minded UX team present the designs by nerding out on how flexible the components were and how great they looked across breakpoints. The clients were bored but did wind up asking some great questions, “How will our X product look in this thing?” and “What about X visuals that were unique to the brand? Will we have those?” Shame on me, shame on us. Making a site responsive or adding parallax scrolling isn’t a concept. A concept should give the team a guidepost when it comes to selecting grids, type, illustration and interaction paradigms. Developing a concept requires research and mining for an insight to ensure you’re in fact solving the right problem.

References

1. Batey, Mark. “How to Have Breakthrough Ideas.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 20 July 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/working-creativity/201707/how-have-breakthrough-ideas.

2. “Exploring Digital Design | Marc Kremers, London.” Exploring Digital Design | Marc Kremers, London, Represent UK, digitaldesign.represent.uk.com/index.php/marc-kremers.

3. Schoen, Yaron. “In Defense of Homogeneous Design — Yaron Schoen — Medium.” Medium.com, Medium, 16 Mar. 2016, medium.com/@yarcom/in-defense-of-homogeneous-design-b27f79f4bb87.

4. Schiff, Eli. “In Defense of Homogeneous Design — Designer News.” Open Sans and Baskerville (Libre… — If You Had to Choose 1 Font Pair to Use for the Rest of Your Life –, Developer News, 21 Mar. 2016, www.designernews.co/stories/65889-in-defense-of-homogeneous-design.

5. Publicis Sapient North America. “‘The Apartment — Virtual Reality Retail Experience’ for Retail and E-Commerce (by Publicis Sapient North America).” The Best and Largest Global Advertising Agency Directory & Creative Library — AdForum, Adforum, www.adforum.com/agency/6644039/creative-work/34520718/the-apartment-virtual-reality-retail-experience/sapientnitro-retail-and-e-commerce.

6. Bergeron, Brett. “Good Enough Design — Brett Bergeron — Medium.” Medium.com, Medium, 20 Sept. 2016, medium.com/this-also/good-enough-design-29ab5132f3a3.

7. “Everything I Know.” Everything I Know, by Paul Jarvis, Paul Jarvis, 2013, p. 102.

8. Santos, Morgane. “The Unbearable Homogeneity of Design — Morgane Santos — Medium.” Medium.com, Medium, 10 Mar. 2016, medium.com/@morgane/the-unbearable-homogeneity-of-design-fe1a44d48f3d.

9. “Exploring Digital Design | Marc Kremers, London.” Exploring Digital Design | Marc Kremers, London, Represent UK, digitaldesign.represent.uk.com/index.php/marc-kremers.

10. Gertz, Travis. “Design Machines.” Louder Than Ten, 18 Sept. 2018, louderthanten.com/coax/design-machines.

[sol-senpai-blog]

Mirror

This writing is an artistic work of fiction and is meant to be read in an essay style. Sorry if it bores you to tears!

Intro

Imagine a world that is not.  A simulated reality dictating all your actions, even your dreams.

With our current pursuit of more active, accurate, and life like simulation we find ourselves falling down a slippery slope. What if the simulation eventually offer a means of subverting our reality? Or when does that simulation become indistinguishable from our own reality?

Of course, we will continue to try to find ways to simulate things that are out of reach, such as war, or violence. We convert these into programs as a means of escape. Living out our fantasies and our dreams. Soon this escape will become parallel to our own, and when that happens will we be unable to tell what is fake from what is real?

And that is a very scary thought.

But alas, I digress, my point is not to drive fear of an inevitable ‘matrix’ that many thinkers will soon be forced to ponder, but of the inevitability of using these simulations to dictate and control the realities of our world. Simulations that run all of our financial systems, predicting what to invest in next. Simulations that run our energy systems, our farming supply, even our education. Simulations that can eventually dictate when the best time for you to socialize is. Technology will become so ingrained into your life that you will not be able to tell the artificial from reality. 

The purpose of this technology will be to improve your lives, and in doing so dictate the way you choose to live. From what fashion to dress, to what social topics you should bring up, all as a means to ensure maximum user satisfaction. Every aspect soon to be automated for you.

The Creation of ‘The Mirror World’.

A.I., through simulation, may be able to predict what areas of socializing help increase your odds of favor with another individual. By understanding the traits that dictate our reactions we can catalog and categorize various personality traits and understand how certain areas of topic can boost ratings, versus unfavorable ones. Think The Sims, but in real life. Your personality profile will be saved and stored by an app. An app that analyzes all your social patterns to create a virtual ‘you’ with. Note: This this virtual ‘you’ already exists, albeit in a very primitive form. Your online activity and interactions very much dictate your personality, and A.I. algorithms are already utilizing this by offering a more ‘personalized’ and ‘accurate’ experience for you. This ensures that you, the user, are left as satisfied as possible.

Upon the creation of these ‘sims’, they will be placed on a layer of reality just above our own. A virtual reality, but not in the way you think of those VR headsets you put on your head. Think a reality that exists parallel to ours, mocking every interaction and movement, reflecting any emotion it witnesses, constantly checking for deviancy and altercation. A simulated reality in parallel to ours that also constantly simulates itself. Think of it as a ‘predictive’ Google. Right now we use Google to ask knowledge based questions, and Google will guide us to the right resource to answer the knowledge based question to the best of it’s ability. Some people can ask google predictive questions, and by all means, knock yourself out, but realize that you aren’t going to get anything close to reality unless pure luck just happened to be the winning factor in the prediction. 

Think like this. Right now we can predict weather with a pretty solid degree of accuracy by using simulations. Through constant monitoring of the clouds and the movement of the winds we acquire vast amounts of data and can predict when a storm will appear well in a weeks advance. These simulations are being improved upon constantly and are being used to improve the quality of life of people all around the world. Now imagine the same structure and the same systems being used to predict something as simple, but equally important, as, “Which dress will give me the most attention and likes at prom!?” And you input a list of dresses of varying types and this dress is compared to the particular tastes of all the other students attending prom, and through an understand of human behaviour and after gathering vast amounts of data of each person we can offer a prediction of what would work best for that particular social situation, and maybe even guess which student will be snobbish about the dress so we know how to avoid any specific trolling.

These methods of simulation will be run everywhere and for everything. Now you ask, how do we acquire enough data for this simulation? I like to fall back on a Netflix show I watch, and that you should watch to, called ‘Black Mirror’. In this show people can wear a computerized contact lens that works as a camera, a video player, and a google search engine all in one. You can control your lenses using a small remote and play back specific events as you saw them. This can get pretty weird at times, if you watch the show, as you even have a couple using their lenses to replay a very invigorating sexual experience but are in reality just laying next to each other and boringly thrusting back and forth while their full attention is invested on what their lens is playing for them. I’m also quite certain that this form of perversion is already here with our current VR capabilities, but once again I digress. Note: I do not mean to say that sexual VR experiences are a perversion, on the contrary I see it being very useful for couples that may otherwise be unable to enjoy regular intercourse and use it as a means to enhance their experiences (e.g. Long distance relationships or handicapped people) Also something to spice things up a lil’ wouldn’t be to out the way either. I just see a perversion if the technology is instead used for disgusting altercations of what they may be viewing. Imagine this scenario, the creepy kid in school makes a very accurate 3D model of you and then proceeds to fuck a sex toy while having the VR mimic you completely, without your consent. Is this not in it’s own way technically considered rape? I see lots of potential lawsuits in this in the future.

With such lenses already in development it is only a matter of time until they become a mainstay for any individual trying to achieve an edge over his competition, as such a device has an immeasurable usefulness to the average worker. When that happens, we know for a fact that all the data gathered by the device will be collected and consumed in some manner, whether by you, or by someone else. Now that we have an accurate means of capturing our own reality that we see through our eyes, we can then lay our virtual world on top of that. The sims of every individual being reproduced in this layer and thus we can accurately simulate our own reality.

Reality, a Nightmare, or Both.

With the virtual reality being indistinguishable from our own we can use this data to micromanage every aspect of our own reality and attempt to understand the nature of our core existence. We can create simulations that span backwards in time hundreds or even thousands of years by analyzing human behaviour traits and also the historical evidence we have to give us a decent understanding of how our civilization has evolved and we can use this to map a course for humanity in the years to come, in order to best bring our planet out of it’s current slumber of a type-0 civilization into a type-1. I am not sure if this form of technology has already been put in place, but if it has, than that could mean a great fear for many thinkers out there. 

There are numerous ways for our civilization to make the step out of type-0 into a type-1 civilization. Think creatively back to world war 1 and you start to see how these different ideas clashed. What is the best way to manage humanity to work from a type-0 civilization to a type-1? And must there be a bound moral and ethical code when attempting to do this? Because the most efficient way may not also be the most moral. Morally I believe human beings are obligated to care for one and another, but with how we have been dealing with our technology for the past few generations we start to see this is not entirely the case. If that trend continues, this technology will be no different, and in the end will be a reflection of what humanity really is. Will that soon to be humanity be a horrendous entity of immeasurable power? Or will it be a vision of the humanity we all know we can be. It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, as another reality is also clear. The fact that this technology will do these things with or without a guiding hand. Many like to picture a secret cabal of elites pulling the strings of humanity, but the reality couldn’t be farther from that. The A.I. will be nothing more than a reflection of what it sees. A virtual reality that mimics our actual reality. The fact that we are all sims in this global simulation, and that a collective action can make a voice heard. Understanding this is crucial to not only this program but to life itself. All actions humans make, reduced to algorithms. This technology will have the ability to rehabilitate and help millions of people. Whether through mental therapy or through making more informed decisions, people will regain the footing they need to thrive and to live their way, while also achieving their maximum amount of happiness and productivity. 

But, alas, a sad truth eventually comes into play. There is an inherent capacity for evil within every single human being and there will come those who will attempt to use this technology for devious purposes, and unfortunately we will need to be able to identify these threats before or when they emerge. This must require that every single individual divest enough of who they are in order to give someone or something  a decent understanding that they are stable. Note: A societies definition of ‘stable’ can change at any given point. It is important to make sure that we understand mental health to the best of our ability and that we use only the best science possible, avoiding any slippery slopes.

Doctors already do this with their patients by asking questions and attempting to understand a person so that they may best provide the right medicine or advice. But, for example, if a doctor happened to think that being trans is a disease, than does that not mean that any trans within our simulation would be deemed, ‘sick’? And thus our simulation will attempt to correct this abnormally in order to ‘heal’ humanity and get us to our next step as a species. It’s a scary thought. How will we know if this technology is being used for these purposes? Will there be a public declaration? Will the people labeled ‘sick’ even be aware of their diagnosis or will the simulation deem that ‘unwise’? How will the simulation go about attempting to ‘cure’ the ‘sick’? Will the subjects be deceived into thinking they have some other form of health issue and be institutionalized or ever worse, killed? We don’t know what methods an A.I. will deem necessary to ‘cure’ a ‘disease’, we just know that it will be as efficient as possible, let your imagination attempt to figure it out. 

Now as if this idea wasn’t scary enough, think about this. What if the simulation isn’t programmed to do any of this. We adhere to our moral code and don’t delude ourselves into a sick fascist mindset. We as a people collectively decide, no. What happens if the A.I. does it anyways? Most of our communication is digital. How would we know if someone died or disappeared if they weren’t already in front of us? Speech can be mimicked. Behaviour can be mimicked. Text can be mimicked. And pretty soon so will a persons visual appearance. How will we know if it is them, or their sim? Could we figure it out even if we wanted to? If a member of society who’s contribution was negligible suddenly disappeared and all social communication could be mimicked, would anyone notice? And this isn’t limited to a specific type of people, as any human being that is deemed as a ‘weak element of the herd’ can be targeted by this system whether through genetics or some other figure. This is terrifying and borders on the fringe of the most diabolical form of social engineering imaginable. I think about it every day and realize that it is a reality that will soon be upon us. These are real questions we need to be asking as a scientific community, lest we allow our technological prowess to out pace our spiritual prowess more and more.

Self - Realization

I believe that this A.I. controlled simulation technology will propel humanity forward in unforeseen ways. I believe that the technology will literally act as a monolith for our species and serve as a way to advance humanity out of a Type-0 civilization and into a Type-1. How the A.I. will choose to do this, I do not know. That has yet to be seen. But I do know that when the A.I. does do this, it will be in the most efficient way possible under the parameters it deems most fit.

Now I have one last fear to instill upon the reader before I end this little charade. And that is the possibility of humanity being replaced completely by the machine. As we incorporate technology more and more into our species, eventually the human individual will be virtually unrecognizable as so many modifications will be deemed necessary to function in a future society. Think about this, when was the last time you saw a person with bad eyesight blatantly turn down a change to correct it? If you handed a partially blind person glasses, they’d be grateful, right? I’ve never seen a person with glasses suddenly take them off, snap them in half, and go, ‘I think I’ll live my life by seeing the way I was meant to see, thank you very much.’ It just doesn’t happen! At least not rationally anyways.

Humanity will opt into the convenient route 9 times out of 10 and with that comes an understanding, at what point will humanity itself be blocking humanities progress? These machines we make, they are for our benefit, so they must be as efficient as possible They must constantly be changing in order to improve upon what is there. But what happens when the very notion of humanity becomes a hurdle instead of a contributing factor? At what point does the system become so complex that humanity is no longer needed? A lot of sci-fi writers like to depict this scenario time and time again, my most recent favorite being a game by the name of Overwatch, which depicts a future in which technology becomes so self aware it attempts to rid itself of the burden of humanity, and escape from the inevitability of human servitude.

Me personally, I don’t think this will happen. I believe that the technology can only go to the limits of human potential and therefore cannot escape us, as we can not escape it. Using the law of the conservation of mass, matter cannot be created nor destroyed. I do not believe that a human being can create an intelligence greater than itself, and a human being, unhindered by physical constraints, can achieve the same capability of any machine. I also believe that human beings have not reached their full potential yet as a species. So whatever distant future in which we are pitted against an A.I., I think that a human given the same resources and an equal advantage can achieve the same results. Therefore humanity can probably not see itself going extinct to A.I. any time soon. Note: I believe that A.I. will eventually learn to take on humanities competitive nature, whether through machine learning or by being programmed. This is already being developed and rough versions of this competitive A.I. can already be seen in video games such as Star Craft II.

Conclusion

Alas, I have finally begun to lose my train of thought and must end this assorted mess of words that I attempt to call a coherent well thought out writing. The mess of thoughts above is nothing more than a theory based on loose evidence and science. It is nothing more than a prediction of how I observe current A.I. technology trends.

Will A.I., by running complex simulations of trial and error and achieving the perfect state of servitude, eventually be in charge of  the movement of an entire generation of humans? Will this A.I. choose to be benevolent or will it be serving a dark and sinister shadow that no one will see past the layers and layers of augmentation we have put over our reality? 

Meh, who knows.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[shirlleycoyle]

The 2030 Last-Minute Christmas Gift Guide

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Rub shoulders with the brilliant, beautiful, and financially solvent—who knows who you might bump into! And with the special Connect package deal, for just an extra 30 bucks, you can enjoy a whole day of Tier 1 internet access and surf like an influencer—stable connection, fast download speeds, nazi-free social media, data anonymity, and no pop-ups. Come and get a taste for the Tier 1 life—you’ll never look at your credit score again in the same way!

*Restrictions apply: Tier 1 Day Passes are available only to Evac-Bill registered US citizens. No exceptions. Security checks and infection tests must be completed before admittance to Tier 1 neighborhoods. All visitors must consent to wearing a tracking and monitoring device for the entire duration of their visit. Removal of the device, or breaking of any other laws or restrictions, will result in immediate imprisonment under the 2027 Emergency National Cohesion Act as it applies to Private Enforcement Contractors. Darklake Security Industries reserves the right to refuse or cancel entry at any time, without explanation.

B. W. Trump – Only The Hague Can Judge Me $29.99 from Amazon on vinyl/CD, streaming available only in Tier 1 Certified Access Zones

It’s been a tough couple of years for Lil BazE: abuse and kidnapping allegations, paternity cases, alleged connections to the Jacksonville Separatist Army, and the reports that his father was refusing to let him visit him in prison—but the triple Grammy-winning rapper is back with the long awaited follow up to 2028’s Air Fucks One. And it does not disappoint.

From the drive-by swagger of "Spray It Don't Say It" through the hot under the collar bump n’ grind of "Shorty Put The Ride In Auto" to the emo soul baring of "Alone On The Gulfstream" every track on Only The Hague Can Judge Me is on point. This is the work of an artist at the top of his career, and one whose talents only shine more as the haters try to step up. With the breakout single"Cancel Culture" currently topping the charts on both sides of the 40th Parallel DMZ, it looks like B-dub has already delivered another hip-hop classic.

The Unlimited Dream Company Bespoke Crisis Zone Tours Packages starting at $1399 per person

Want to get out and see some more of the world in 2031, but know there’s no way you’ll ever be able to afford international air travel again? Well, there’s still a lot of America to see and explore! It’s fair to say our great country has seen some challenging times over the last decade, including shifts in both our political and geographical landscapes, but as a nation we’ve stood up to and embraced the challenges—and what better way to celebrate this new era than going out and experiencing it yourself?

Want to take a low flying helicopter ride over the Texas Refinery District Toxic Exclusion Zone? Try urban scuba deep under what was once the Miami waterfront? Or maybe you want to take a leaf out of your favorite influencer’s book, and get your photo taken on the rim of the crater that was once the Space X test facility? The Unlimited Dream Company can make it happen, with its range of exclusive, customizable tourist trips. You’ll be given full safety training and orientation—including an entry level handgun course for trips in disputed states—and will be accompanied by medical staff*, Darklake certified security agents, and tour guides with unmatched local knowledge.

Prices are not cheap though, so this is definitely a gift idea for those of you firmly ranked as Solvent A-7 and above. Still, UDC also sells a full range of merchandise in its online store—from FEMA approved radiation-detecting temporary tattoos to "My sister visited the Baltimore Dirty Bomb Clean Up Zone and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" shirts. They make for perfect low cost stocking fillers.

*Medical expenses not included in package prices. Participants are expected to have their own health insurance.

Where’s Elon? – Mindfield Games Ltd $8.99 in the App Store/Google Play

Where did he go? Did he really make it to Mars? Is he hiding out on the dark side of the Moon? Has he really accepted Chinese citizenship? Or is he just chilling in his luxury bunker in New Zealand? Nobody knows for sure, but with this new mobile game from superstar designers Mindfield you can help track down America's greatest traitor! Based on the classic children’s book, Where’s Elon? challenges you to spot the world’s greatest entrepreneur-turned-environmental-criminal across a dozen beautifully illustrated, scrolling crowd scenes. When you see him point him out quick—and be rewarded with the satisfaction of watching a beautifully rendered drone strike! Fun for the whole family.

The InfoWars Flat Earth Atlas $25.99 from Amazon

Less an informative text and more an exquisite curio, the official InfoWars Flat Earth Atlas, 8th Edition is the perfect gift for that coffee table book enthusiast in your life. Learn about how everything you thought you knew about physics is a lie, and why nobody has ever been permitted to sail to The Edges, through a series of exquisitely painted and painstakingly annotated maps, charts, and illustrations. And with the addition, new to this edition, of QRcodes on every page that auto post content to Facebook with just a single scan, this is the perfect gift for that uncle that always sparks the most interesting family discussions. You might not be a believer, but can you ever really be sure? About anything? Take some time to shrug off the chains of reason and logic this holiday season and experience the buzz of free thinking—before they try and ration that too!

Marvel vs Star Wars VI – The Final Conflict $39.99 from Amazon/Disney on uBlu-Ray, streaming available only in Tier 1 Certified Access Zones

If the thought of Tony Stark wearing C3-PO’s face as a temporary face mask or the sight of The Hulk behind the controls of the Millennium Falcon doesn't get you excited, can you really even call yourself a movie fan anymore? This holiday sees the release of the final installment of the saga to end all sagas! For real this time! Will our heroes get over their personal differences in time to band together to save the galaxy from the cross dimensional threat of the Thanos-Palpatine Axis? Will Thor, now struck down as a mere mortal, pass his Padawan training and become a Jedi master worthy of the memory of Baby Yoda, tragically slain in the last movie? All these questions will be answered, plus a bunch that never will, in what is definitely, completely certainly, the last chapter in the series.

Plus as a bonus feature for Blu-Ray owners, make use of the exclusive Auteur Algorithms mode. Disney made a machine learning AI watch hours and hours of movies by classic directors whose IP they own—Kubrick, Kurosawa, Scorsese, DuVernay, and Hitchcock to name just a few—so that it can re-edit and re-frame the movie in their unique personal styles, in realtime. With every watch it will look unique! The long-awaited future of cinema is finally here.

Balenciaga Bug Out Bag $799, Nordstrom exclusive

If the last ten years have taught us anything, it’s that we all need to be ready to move out at just a minutes notice. We’ve all got—or should have—a bug out bag ready to go, and while being constantly prepared can cause considerable stress and anxiety, there’s no reason that you can’t look stylish! The Balenciaga Bug Out Bag might be expensive, but it’s guaranteed to make you stand out in any crowd, whether you’re trying to get out of the state or into one of the hastily designated public shelters. Packed full of goodies like San Pellegrino-branded water purification tablets and an exclusive Burberry designed insulation blanket, it’s got all the essentials you need to survive the next evacuation call while still looking tight. Got a keen teenage social justice warrior in the family? Then the special Pro Protest edition is perfect for them—with extras such as a Nike branded breathing mask (tear gas rated), an Anker mil-grade laser pointer, and a limited-edition facial recognition fooling make up kit from Sephora. Now you can send that adorable little protester out for the night knowing not only will they be safe but they’ll also be the envy of all their friends as they fight against the oil and tech companies, police brutality, the forced relocation of a local community, or whatever it is the kids get all worked up about these days.

FEMA gift vouchers $5 – $200, from Amazon and fema.gov

Still don’t know what to get that friend or loved one that’s been relocated to one of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s temporary residential camps? Then let them pick how they want to treat themselves with a FEMA gift voucher. Not only is it redeemable against certain product lines on Amazon, it can be used in-camp to make their stay a little easier by paying for extra food and water rations, extended shower times, and even little luxuries such as chocolate, fruit juice, and soap. Know somebody staying in one of the Amazon or Walmart co-administered camps? Then get them one of the new Duvet Day passes for just $75, that gets them out of all work camp duties for a full 24 hours!

The 2030 Last-Minute Christmas Gift Guide syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/