#wealth automation system

[joeygoldy]

Useful Tips for Becoming a Successful Agriculture Investor

Agriculture investment refers to the allocation of financial resources, capital, or assets into various aspects of the agricultural sector with the expectation of generating a return on investment (ROI). This could mean investing monies in agriculture land for sale such as coconut land for sale in Sri Lanka, or other types of investments. It involves deploying funds in activities and projects related to agriculture for the purpose of profit, income generation, or long-term wealth creation. Agriculture investment can take many forms, including:

Farmland Acquisition: Purchasing agricultural land for the cultivation of crops or the raising of livestock. This can involve both large-scale and small-scale farming operations.

Infrastructure Development: Investing in the construction and improvement of infrastructure such as irrigation systems, roads, storage facilities, and processing plants to enhance agricultural productivity and efficiency.

Technological Advancements: Funding the development and adoption of agricultural technologies, such as precision agriculture, automation, and biotechnology, to improve crop yields and reduce operational costs.

Agribusiness Ventures: Investing in agribusinesses, such as food processing, distribution, and marketing, that are part of the agricultural value chain.

Research and Development: Supporting research initiatives related to agriculture to develop new crop varieties, pest-resistant strains, and sustainable farming practices.

Input Supply: Investing in the production and distribution of agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, and machinery.

Commodity Trading: Speculating on the future prices of agricultural commodities, such as grains, oilseeds, and livestock, through commodity markets or futures contracts.

Sustainable Agriculture: Funding practices and projects aimed at sustainable and environmentally responsible farming methods, which can include organic farming, agroforestry, and conservation efforts.

Rural Development: Supporting initiatives that improve the overall economic and social well-being of rural communities, often through investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure.

Venture Capital and Start-ups: Investing in start-ups and companies focused on innovations in agriculture, such as vertical farming, aquaculture, or agricultural technology (AgTech).

Agriculture investment is important for food security, economic development, and job creation in many regions. However, it also comes with risks related to weather conditions, commodity price fluctuations, and market dynamics. Investors often conduct thorough research and risk assessments before committing their resources to agricultural ventures. Additionally, they may need to consider factors like government policies, environmental regulations, and social impacts on their investment decisions in the agricultural sector.

How to become a successful agriculture investor

Becoming a successful agriculture investor requires a combination of financial acumen, agricultural knowledge, and a strategic approach to investment. Here are some steps to help you become a successful agriculture investor:

Educate Yourself: Gain a strong understanding of the agricultural sector, including the different sub-sectors (crops, livestock, agribusiness, etc.). Stay updated on industry trends, market conditions, and emerging technologies.

Set Clear Investment Goals: Define your investment objectives, whether it is long-term wealth creation, income generation, or diversification of your investment portfolio.

Risk Assessment: Understand and assess the risks associated with agriculture investments, such as weather-related risks, market volatility, and regulatory changes, whether you are looking at land for sale or any other type of investment.

Develop a Diversified Portfolio: Diversify your investments across different agricultural sectors and geographic regions to spread risk.

Market Research: Conduct thorough market research to identify promising investment opportunities and potential demand for agricultural products.

Build a Network: Establish connections with farmers, agricultural experts, government agencies, and industry stakeholders who can provide insights and opportunities.

Financial Planning: Create a budget and financial plan that outlines your investment capital, expected returns, and cash flow requirements.

Select the Right Investment Type: Choose the type of agriculture investment that aligns with your goals, whether it is farmland, agribusiness ventures, or agricultural technology.

Due Diligence: Conduct comprehensive due diligence on potential investments, including assessing the quality of farmland, the financial health of agribusinesses, and the technology's potential for scalability and profitability.

Sustainable Practices: Consider investments in sustainable and environmentally responsible agriculture practices, as they are gaining importance in the industry.

Risk Management: Implement risk management strategies, such as insurance, to protect your investments from unforeseen events like natural disasters or crop failures.

Continuous Learning: Stay informed about changes in the agricultural industry and adapt your investment strategy accordingly.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Understand and comply with local, national, and international regulations and tax laws that may impact your agriculture investments.

Monitor and Adjust: Regularly review the performance of your investments and be prepared to make adjustments or exit underperforming ones.

Long-Term Perspective: Agriculture investments often require a long-term perspective, so be patient and avoid making impulsive decisions based on short-term market fluctuations.

Seek Professional Advice: Consult with financial advisors, agricultural experts, and legal professionals to ensure that your investments are structured and managed effectively.

Successful agriculture investment often involves a mix of financial expertise, industry knowledge, and a willingness to adapt to changing conditions. It is important to approach agriculture investment with a well-thought-out strategy, and to be prepared for both opportunities and challenges in this sector.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The AI hype bubble is the new crypto hype bubble

Back in 2017 Long Island Ice Tea — known for its undistinguished, barely drinkable sugar-water — changed its name to “Long Blockchain Corp.” Its shares surged to a peak of 400% over their pre-announcement price. The company announced no specific integrations with any kind of blockchain, nor has it made any such integrations since.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

LBCC was subsequently delisted from NASDAQ after settling with the SEC over fraudulent investor statements. Today, the company trades over the counter and its market cap is $36m, down from $138m.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/textbook-case-of-crypto-hype-how-iced-tea-company-went-blockchain-and-failed-despite-a-289-percent-stock-rise

The most remarkable thing about this incredibly stupid story is that LBCC wasn’t the peak of the blockchain bubble — rather, it was the start of blockchain’s final pump-and-dump. By the standards of 2022’s blockchain grifters, LBCC was small potatoes, a mere $138m sugar-water grift.

They didn’t have any NFTs, no wash trades, no ICO. They didn’t have a Superbowl ad. They didn’t steal billions from mom-and-pop investors while proclaiming themselves to be “Effective Altruists.” They didn’t channel hundreds of millions to election campaigns through straw donations and other forms of campaing finance frauds. They didn’t even open a crypto-themed hamburger restaurant where you couldn’t buy hamburgers with crypto:

https://robbreport.com/food-drink/dining/bored-hungry-restaurant-no-cryptocurrency-1234694556/

They were amateurs. Their attempt to “make fetch happen” only succeeded for a brief instant. By contrast, the superpredators of the crypto bubble were able to make fetch happen over an improbably long timescale, deploying the most powerful reality distortion fields since Pets.com.

Anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop. We’re told that trillions of dollars’ worth of crypto has been wiped out over the past year, but these losses are nowhere to be seen in the real economy — because the “wealth” that was wiped out by the crypto bubble’s bursting never existed in the first place.

Like any Ponzi scheme, crypto was a way to separate normies from their savings through the pretense that they were “investing” in a vast enterprise — but the only real money (“fiat” in cryptospeak) in the system was the hardscrabble retirement savings of working people, which the bubble’s energetic inflaters swapped for illiquid, worthless shitcoins.

We’ve stopped believing in the illusory billions. Sam Bankman-Fried is under house arrest. But the people who gave him money — and the nimbler Ponzi artists who evaded arrest — are looking for new scams to separate the marks from their money.

Take Morganstanley, who spent 2021 and 2022 hyping cryptocurrency as a massive growth opportunity:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/morgan-stanley-launches-cryptocurrency-research-team

Today, Morganstanley wants you to know that AI is a $6 trillion opportunity.

They’re not alone. The CEOs of Endeavor, Buzzfeed, Microsoft, Spotify, Youtube, Snap, Sports Illustrated, and CAA are all out there, pumping up the AI bubble with every hour that god sends, declaring that the future is AI.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/wall-street-ai-stock-price-1235343279/

Google and Bing are locked in an arms-race to see whose search engine can attain the speediest, most profound enshittification via chatbot, replacing links to web-pages with florid paragraphs composed by fully automated, supremely confident liars:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/tweedledumber/#easily-spooked

Blockchain was a solution in search of a problem. So is AI. Yes, Buzzfeed will be able to reduce its wage-bill by automating its personality quiz vertical, and Spotify’s “AI DJ” will produce slightly less terrible playlists (at least, to the extent that Spotify doesn’t put its thumb on the scales by inserting tracks into the playlists whose only fitness factor is that someone paid to boost them).

But even if you add all of this up, double it, square it, and add a billion dollar confidence interval, it still doesn’t add up to what Bank Of America analysts called “a defining moment — like the internet in the ’90s.” For one thing, the most exciting part of the “internet in the ‘90s” was that it had incredibly low barriers to entry and wasn’t dominated by large companies — indeed, it had them running scared.

The AI bubble, by contrast, is being inflated by massive incumbents, whose excitement boils down to “This will let the biggest companies get much, much bigger and the rest of you can go fuck yourselves.” Some revolution.

AI has all the hallmarks of a classic pump-and-dump, starting with terminology. AI isn’t “artificial” and it’s not “intelligent.” “Machine learning” doesn’t learn. On this week’s Trashfuture podcast, they made an excellent (and profane and hilarious) case that ChatGPT is best understood as a sophisticated form of autocomplete — not our new robot overlord.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4NHKMZZNKi0w9mOhPYIL4T

We all know that autocomplete is a decidedly mixed blessing. Like all statistical inference tools, autocomplete is profoundly conservative — it wants you to do the same thing tomorrow as you did yesterday (that’s why “sophisticated” ad retargeting ads show you ads for shoes in response to your search for shoes). If the word you type after “hey” is usually “hon” then the next time you type “hey,” autocomplete will be ready to fill in your typical following word — even if this time you want to type “hey stop texting me you freak”:

https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/provocations/neophobic-conservative-ai-overlords-want-everything-stay/

And when autocomplete encounters a new input — when you try to type something you’ve never typed before — it tries to get you to finish your sentence with the statistically median thing that everyone would type next, on average. Usually that produces something utterly bland, but sometimes the results can be hilarious. Back in 2018, I started to text our babysitter with “hey are you free to sit” only to have Android finish the sentence with “on my face” (not something I’d ever typed!):

https://mashable.com/article/android-predictive-text-sit-on-my-face

Modern autocomplete can produce long passages of text in response to prompts, but it is every bit as unreliable as 2018 Android SMS autocomplete, as Alexander Hanff discovered when ChatGPT informed him that he was dead, even generating a plausible URL for a link to a nonexistent obit in The Guardian:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/02/chatgpt_considered_harmful/

Of course, the carnival barkers of the AI pump-and-dump insist that this is all a feature, not a bug. If autocomplete says stupid, wrong things with total confidence, that’s because “AI” is becoming more human, because humans also say stupid, wrong things with total confidence.

Exhibit A is the billionaire AI grifter Sam Altman, CEO if OpenAI — a company whose products are not open, nor are they artificial, nor are they intelligent. Altman celebrated the release of ChatGPT by tweeting “i am a stochastic parrot, and so r u.”

https://twitter.com/sama/status/1599471830255177728

This was a dig at the “stochastic parrots” paper, a comprehensive, measured roundup of criticisms of AI that led Google to fire Timnit Gebru, a respected AI researcher, for having the audacity to point out the Emperor’s New Clothes:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/04/1013294/google-ai-ethics-research-paper-forced-out-timnit-gebru/

Gebru’s co-author on the Parrots paper was Emily M Bender, a computational linguistics specialist at UW, who is one of the best-informed and most damning critics of AI hype. You can get a good sense of her position from Elizabeth Weil’s New York Magazine profile:

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

Bender has made many important scholarly contributions to her field, but she is also famous for her rules of thumb, which caution her fellow scientists not to get high on their own supply:

Please do not conflate word form and meaning

Mind your own credulity

As Bender says, we’ve made “machines that can mindlessly generate text, but we haven’t learned how to stop imagining the mind behind it.” One potential tonic against this fallacy is to follow an Italian MP’s suggestion and replace “AI” with “SALAMI” (“Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences”). It’s a lot easier to keep a clear head when someone asks you, “Is this SALAMI intelligent? Can this SALAMI write a novel? Does this SALAMI deserve human rights?”

Bender’s most famous contribution is the “stochastic parrot,” a construct that “just probabilistically spits out words.” AI bros like Altman love the stochastic parrot, and are hellbent on reducing human beings to stochastic parrots, which will allow them to declare that their chatbots have feature-parity with human beings.

At the same time, Altman and Co are strangely afraid of their creations. It’s possible that this is just a shuck: “I have made something so powerful that it could destroy humanity! Luckily, I am a wise steward of this thing, so it’s fine. But boy, it sure is powerful!”

They’ve been playing this game for a long time. People like Elon Musk (an investor in OpenAI, who is hoping to convince the EU Commission and FTC that he can fire all of Twitter’s human moderators and replace them with chatbots without violating EU law or the FTC’s consent decree) keep warning us that AI will destroy us unless we tame it.

There’s a lot of credulous repetition of these claims, and not just by AI’s boosters. AI critics are also prone to engaging in what Lee Vinsel calls criti-hype: criticizing something by repeating its boosters’ claims without interrogating them to see if they’re true:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

There are better ways to respond to Elon Musk warning us that AIs will emulsify the planet and use human beings for food than to shout, “Look at how irresponsible this wizard is being! He made a Frankenstein’s Monster that will kill us all!” Like, we could point out that of all the things Elon Musk is profoundly wrong about, he is most wrong about the philosophical meaning of Wachowksi movies:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/18/lilly-wachowski-ivana-trump-elon-musk-twitter-red-pill-the-matrix-tweets

But even if we take the bros at their word when they proclaim themselves to be terrified of “existential risk” from AI, we can find better explanations by seeking out other phenomena that might be triggering their dread. As Charlie Stross points out, corporations are Slow AIs, autonomous artificial lifeforms that consistently do the wrong thing even when the people who nominally run them try to steer them in better directions:

https://media.ccc.de/v/34c3-9270-dude_you_broke_the_future

Imagine the existential horror of a ultra-rich manbaby who nominally leads a company, but can’t get it to follow: “everyone thinks I’m in charge, but I’m actually being driven by the Slow AI, serving as its sock puppet on some days, its golem on others.”

Ted Chiang nailed this back in 2017 (the same year of the Long Island Blockchain Company):

There’s a saying, popularized by Fredric Jameson, that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. It’s no surprise that Silicon Valley capitalists don’t want to think about capitalism ending. What’s unexpected is that the way they envision the world ending is through a form of unchecked capitalism, disguised as a superintelligent AI. They have unconsciously created a devil in their own image, a boogeyman whose excesses are precisely their own.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway

Chiang is still writing some of the best critical work on “AI.” His February article in the New Yorker, “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web,” was an instant classic:

[AI] hallucinations are compression artifacts, but — like the incorrect labels generated by the Xerox photocopier — they are plausible enough that identifying them requires comparing them against the originals, which in this case means either the Web or our own knowledge of the world.

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web

“AI” is practically purpose-built for inflating another hype-bubble, excelling as it does at producing party-tricks — plausible essays, weird images, voice impersonations. But as Princeton’s Matthew Salganik writes, there’s a world of difference between “cool” and “tool”:

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2023/03/08/can-chatgpt-and-its-successors-go-from-cool-to-tool/

Nature can claim “conversational AI is a game-changer for science” but “there is a huge gap between writing funny instructions for removing food from home electronics and doing scientific research.” Salganik tried to get ChatGPT to help him with the most banal of scholarly tasks — aiding him in peer reviewing a colleague’s paper. The result? “ChatGPT didn’t help me do peer review at all; not one little bit.”

The criti-hype isn’t limited to ChatGPT, of course — there’s plenty of (justifiable) concern about image and voice generators and their impact on creative labor markets, but that concern is often expressed in ways that amplify the self-serving claims of the companies hoping to inflate the hype machine.

One of the best critical responses to the question of image- and voice-generators comes from Kirby Ferguson, whose final Everything Is a Remix video is a superb, visually stunning, brilliantly argued critique of these systems:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rswxcDyotXA

One area where Ferguson shines is in thinking through the copyright question — is there any right to decide who can study the art you make? Except in some edge cases, these systems don’t store copies of the images they analyze, nor do they reproduce them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

For creators, the important material question raised by these systems is economic, not creative: will our bosses use them to erode our wages? That is a very important question, and as far as our bosses are concerned, the answer is a resounding yes.

Markets value automation primarily because automation allows capitalists to pay workers less. The textile factory owners who purchased automatic looms weren’t interested in giving their workers raises and shorting working days. ‘ They wanted to fire their skilled workers and replace them with small children kidnapped out of orphanages and indentured for a decade, starved and beaten and forced to work, even after they were mangled by the machines. Fun fact: Oliver Twist was based on the bestselling memoir of Robert Blincoe, a child who survived his decade of forced labor:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59127/59127-h/59127-h.htm

Today, voice actors sitting down to record for games companies are forced to begin each session with “My name is ______ and I hereby grant irrevocable permission to train an AI with my voice and use it any way you see fit.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d37za/voice-actors-sign-away-rights-to-artificial-intelligence

Let’s be clear here: there is — at present — no firmly established copyright over voiceprints. The “right” that voice actors are signing away as a non-negotiable condition of doing their jobs for giant, powerful monopolists doesn’t even exist. When a corporation makes a worker surrender this right, they are betting that this right will be created later in the name of “artists’ rights” — and that they will then be able to harvest this right and use it to fire the artists who fought so hard for it.

There are other approaches to this. We could support the US Copyright Office’s position that machine-generated works are not works of human creative authorship and are thus not eligible for copyright — so if corporations wanted to control their products, they’d have to hire humans to make them:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/21/22944335/us-copyright-office-reject-ai-generated-art-recent-entrance-to-paradise

Or we could create collective rights that belong to all artists and can’t be signed away to a corporation. That’s how the right to record other musicians’ songs work — and it’s why Taylor Swift was able to re-record the masters that were sold out from under her by evil private-equity bros::

https://doctorow.medium.com/united-we-stand-61e16ec707e2

Whatever we do as creative workers and as humans entitled to a decent life, we can’t afford drink the Blockchain Iced Tea. That means that we have to be technically competent, to understand how the stochastic parrot works, and to make sure our criticism doesn’t just repeat the marketing copy of the latest pump-and-dump.

Today (Mar 9), you can catch me in person in Austin at the UT School of Design and Creative Technologies, and remotely at U Manitoba’s Ethics of Emerging Tech Lecture.

Tomorrow (Mar 10), Rebecca Giblin and I kick off the SXSW reading series.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A graph depicting the Gartner hype cycle. A pair of HAL 9000's glowing red eyes are chasing each other down the slope from the Peak of Inflated Expectations to join another one that is at rest in the Trough of Disillusionment. It, in turn, sits atop a vast cairn of HAL 9000 eyes that are piled in a rough pyramid that extends below the graph to a distance of several times its height.]

[mcyt-builds-contest]

The Ghost's Vault:

Contained : VikingPilot's Prized possesions

Series : Dominion SMP

Propaganda : Perhaps the only self-titled Vault to actually be one, the Ghost's Vault, built by VikingPilot, is two things -- a consolidation of wealth, and a display of power. Built at a time on Dominion where every single diamond had to be handed over to the Queen every two weeks, the Vault is made in total opposition to that policy as an extremely intimidating secret stash. All 10 sets of Netherite armor are enchanted and labeled. It's built with soulfire lanterns under the center carpet runner for the sole purpose of unnerving the local piglin. He's taken people here twice onscreen, and both times it was to cash in a no-conditions-set IOU with that other person in order to make sure things work out exactly the way they need to. It also contains two very important books! Viking's "To Do" list is very simple -- Run Dominion. However, the other one -- the Book -- is quite possibly the single most dangerous thing in Viking's possession. He's not sure what's in it, other than that it contains rituals of unimaginable power and that if he opens it again, he will crack in half. Oh, and the Ghost's Vault is also the location for the world's most unhinged 12-minute 100% improv monologue to ever exist.

Caracosa's Prison of Hope:

Contained : ToAsgaard

Series : Celestial journey

Propaganda : Yes, the Prison of Hope as in the level from Demon's Souls, and yes, Carcosa as in the place from The King In Yellow. Carcosa is a massive and sprawling build, chock-full of details and incredible technical prowess -- modded magic, tech, and vanilla redstone all working together to power some truly insane automation setups -- and this prison pretty much epitomizes how absolutely unhinged he is as a builder and a modded tech player. First of all: it looks stunning. It's unfinished, but from most angles that's almost impossible to tell, as so much of it has been fleshed out. Every single cell has detailing! The bottom of the prison has details! There are shelving units that serve both practical and decorative purposes, cages showing live mobs painstakingly moved in from another dimension, columns and arches and chains galore, and incredible ambience in general. Second of all: it's also a fully functional mob farm. For any mob. Every single cell is rigged up to serve as a spawner for a different mob, able to be changed out remotely using modded item routing. The bottom of the prison automatically kills any mobs that spawn there to charge a blood altar, and there's a Wither killing cage down there as well. There's even further item routing in place to funnel all the drops directly into his equally unhinged storage system -- which is a combination of storage drawers, blood magic, and Botania's notoriously janky Coporea Index. Asgaard is an absolute madman. All of Carcosa is gorgeous and lives in my head rent free.

[lawofnamesmedia]

We are very excited to announce the cast of Cloud City Sonata, the first Dakota Gold Mystery.

"In possession of an absolute confidence in her immunity from any and all consequences, coupled with a self-satisfied and lofty contempt for others."

Amy Young as Westing Garrison

"My god, when will you grow up, and put these... toys behind you?"

Alain F. D'Regel as Archer "Archie" Garrison.

"In keeping with their desperate attempts to display their status and wealth, the Garrison household was entirely staffed by robots."

James Big as various robots.

"Please remember that displaying aggression toward its automated systems is a violation of Cloud City Administrative Code 1229.6a. Persistent code violations may result in fine and/or punitive de-sleeving."

Interiority as The Elevator

"There is not a single other scientist, researcher, or clinician in this entire benighted city that can do work of this type. I invented the process!"

Daisy McNamara as The Neurosomaticist

"I'd noticed that passenger immediately. They'd gotten on several stops after me, and stood out, even in the crush of bodies and PPE. I wasn't sure what they wore, but either way, it was not off-the-rack."

Kit Patterson as Metalmouth

"However skilled a soldier they had been, whatever unit they'd belonged to, whatever training they'd had, whatever choices they'd made... all that was long gone."

Moira Daykin as Screw-Loose Lugh

"Everything about their looks screamed money. Which I liked. The way they glanced toward the door, and the slight wobble that continue to creep into their voice meant risk. Which I didn't."

Emma Laslett as Roxanne Webb

"Cloud City's number one procurer of "exotic" soma. And people to wear them."

Michael E. Freemantle As Valentine "The Veterinarian" Voight

[probablyasocialecologist]

In case you missed it: artificial intelligence (AI) will make teachers redundant, become sentient, and soon, wipe out humanity as we know it. From Elon Musk, to the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, to Rishi Sunak’s AI advisor, industry leaders and experts everywhere are warning about AI’s mortal threat to our existence as a species. They are right about one thing: AI can be harmful. Facial recognition systems are already being used to prohibit possible protestors exercising fundamental rights. Automated fraud detectors are falsely cutting off thousands of people from much-needed welfare payments and surveillance tools are being used in the workplace to monitor workers’ productivity. Many of us might be shielded from the worst harms of AI. Wealth, social privilege or proximity to whiteness and capital mean that many are less likely to fall prey to tools of societal control and surveillance. As Virginia Eubanks puts it ‘many of us in the professional middle class only brush against [the invisible spider web of AI] briefly… We may have to pause a moment to extricate ourselves from its gummy grasp, but its impacts don’t linger.’ By contrast, it is well established that the worst harms of government decisions already fall hardest on those most marginalised. Let’s take the example of drugs policing and the disproportionate impact on communities of colour. Though the evidence shows that Black people use drugs no more, and possibly less, than white people, the police direct efforts to identify drug-related crimes towards communities of colour. As a consequence, the data then shows that communities of colour are more likely to be ‘hotpots’ for drugs. In this way, policing efforts to ‘identify’ the problem creates a problem in the eyes of the system, and the cycle of overpolicing continues. When you automate such processes, as with predictive policing tools based on racist and classist criminal justice data, these biases are further entrenched.

[awakenedsalamander]

would you be willing to speak moron the Technocracy? you have very interesting takes on it and I would like to know more

Happily!

So to me the Technocracy (in its 20th and 21 century incarnations, anyway, the early Technocracy/Order of Reason is different in some significant respects) represents a view of the world that is divorced from anything other than data and hard facts. This viewpoint is not exclusive to scientism, the paradigm I discussed in my recent post on the Technocracy, and is in fact an arguable core of pragmatism itself— there are times when it is essential to put aside ideals, emotions, and speculation and work only with what you can tangibly interact with. Sometimes, you have to put aside how the world should or could be, and work only with what it provably, unquestionably is.

But if you’ve ever discussed politics with someone who keeps insisting “well, that’s just how the world is,” rather than engaging with new ways of thinking or unconventional ideals, you’ll probably have realized that this way of looking at things can be profoundly limiting.

(Incidentally, this is why I think there’s the tendency to align most Technocrats with Stasis/The Weaver— the paradigm of technology itself can be Dynamic, Entropic, and Questing in a lot of cases, but the way the Technocracy uses it is broadly static, I think.)

Let’s use an example here, and talk about climate change. There’s a tendency to view the people most effectively driving climate change— the executives who profit off it, the lobbyists and politicians who sustain it, the demagogues and conspiracists who argue against its reality— as malevolent. They know what they’re doing, they know how it hurts the world and the people who inhabit, and they’re fine with it. Maybe some of them even enjoy it. This is basically the tack Werewolf: The Apocalypse takes with Pentex, for instance.

And that view is, to a larger extent than I think is remotely comfortable, true. Reckoning with the truth in that is part of what makes Werewolf fun, and it’s also one of the drivers on Mage’s own Nephandi.

But, I think it’s also true that most of the people responsible for ecological collapse don’t see themselves as doing anything wrong, and are instead able to just elide the details of the morality and ramifications of their industry/system/ambition and focus purely on the benefit. As said earlier, that is sometimes necessary— in an immediate crisis it can even be a godsend— but in the long-term and on a wider scale it can be quite damaging.

See, if you focus only on quantifiable data, there’s a way to look at climate change as kind of a trade-off you make for important numbers to go up. Industrialization is, economically speaking, incredibly beneficial, the advancement of technology improves not only wealth, but also security, communication, and even quality of life, and from the point of view of certain fields (at least as they currently exist) like agriculture, commercial shipping, energy production, and so on, the policies that really combat the bad effects of climate change would be disastrous! Can’t we afford a few more degrees Celsius for all that?

And if you want to get really dark, there’s the fact that wealthy countries and their oligarchs are going to be the least affected by natural disasters, resource conflicts, and pandemics. It won’t be easy, sure, but nothing ever is, and from a realpolitik standpoint, if other nations (which are potential threats after all) suffer those bad effects more than you do, then maybe weathering the storm is tactically viable…

So all in all, don’t pump the brakes, and certainly don’t reinvent the wheel here! We’ve got a good thing going, and it could be chaos to stop it! Hell, with all the benefits we’re getting, we might even invent some gadget or technique to solve the worst of it.

But of course, this misses so much. In the same way that topics I wanted to touch on, like algorithmic culture and automation, may have valuable benefits from certain points of view, you have to look at the whole picture. With climate change, you already see mass extinctions, and no amount of restorative cloning is going to reverse the ecological damage there. We’re going to see an increase in displacement and homelessness by disasters and the need for people to relocate from dangerous areas, which will ruin lives, if not end them. To say nothing of the inhumanity of allowing suffering on this scale when something can be done about it, right now!

But how do you prove that “ecological damage,” “ruined lives,” and “inhumanity” are worse than the loss of trillions+ of dollars which we’d have to spend to avoid them? It’s apples to oranges— no, it’s the abstract to the concrete. If someone only wants to think about the numbers, then there’s at least a debate. There’s cost benefit analysis and logistic comparison— but not action.

Now, I am simplifying significantly here. There are many reasons that climate change and other societal crises aren’t addressed beyond scientism, or political inertia, or even just greed and selfishness. To name a few, we also struggle against ignorance, against fear, against exhaustion, against bigotry, against the unknown. It’s not so simple. One of the problems with the worldview I’m attacking is its tendency to simplify things by smoothing over the issues, so I don’t want to do that.

But I do think that the biggest issues in our society can’t be tackled with cold math and a focus on what nets the best cost-to-benefit ratio. I think in a lot of cases, that kind of thinking— which, to bring it back to the point, is the kind of thinking the Technocracy embodies— is what got us these issues in the first place.

God, was this too serious for a World of Darkness discussion?

Anyway, thanks for the question! I appreciate the chance to analyze the topic.

[lousirs]

IM SORRY IM BCAKK AGAIN BUT I JUST REMEMBERED THIS AWFUL HEADCANNON I HAD

ewew ok so I think it's safe to assume that the toy brand of pretty dolls probably gained success in the 60s or 70s given some of the little details in Lou's house and his style. The factories work all year round right and are automatic as seen in the movie, but most things required actual human workers back in the day. HERE'S THE STINGER. I read somewhere I forgot where, but back in the day workers in factories didn't work in the winter time because it was too cold. so basically if we applied this to the uglydolls world, there was a rather long period of time where there was no income of dolls in perfection for the ENTIRETY of winter. So Lou had absolutely no company whatsoever in the winter for like 40+ years give or take (I have no idea when automated factories became a thing)

ok now I'm just making things worse but I also had another headcannon where weather in the real world also applied in uglyville and perfection and like the dolls in perfection got winter uniforms and all that (ugh now I might rant about this). So yea it was snowing, no other dolls in perfection, kind of depressing given that probably by then Lou had cut off ties with Ox. YOU CANT MENTION THE BOTS IN PERFECTION BC NO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE YET (lol that means Lou was COMPLETELY incharge of everything, maybe he had assistance in doll form?)

yea but this probably played a role in the downfall of Lou's mental wealth like man just lost his best man Ox so being alone for a whole month once a year was definitely not a silly goofy moment for him.

ok that's the end of my ramble 😼😼

NO NEED TO APOLOGISE FOR RETURNING! i love me some headcanons :D

that's a big ouch for lou, but you are probably right there. lou (and also mandy) have 50s/60s- style houses (i believe so anyway) so how long would that be if we say lou's breakdown was about 2020 so (the movie is 2019 but im rounding it to 2020 for my brain)... OUCH AROUND 70 YEARS. SAVE LOU OH MY DOLL--

love your headcanons though, and i have a few of my own for that:

(under the cut, cause i can already tell this is gonna be a long one vvv)

perhaps since the factory closes for winter, the batch made right before stay in the institute for winter? yeah yeah lou could probably send them to the big world when the factory closes, but knowing him, he'd probably keep them for the holidays at the very least. cause he craves for that company.

it would be so cute though! lou would hold a big winter party with singing and FIREWORKS and whatnot. side note, i headcanon that lou loves fireworks. i mean, he uses them all the time (during ugly truth... during his lessons... etc) and i can so see him going all out on the fireworks budget. anyway, i feel that such parties would bring temporary joy to him, as he finally feels part of a family, with every doll laughing and chatting and overall having a good time.

...and then they would leave him again. and again. and again. and again... i feel like after a while he'd give up on the festives, as temporary joy and love isn't fulfilling anymore.

with the weather, i have a really dumb theory that the institute is within a dome. think about it, uglyville has a yawn ball for a sun with messy clouds...

and in the institute, the clouds are perfect (more realistic even) and there's no sun in sight (as far as i know)

uglyville probably has all kinds of weather, whilst at the institute it is always a fair temperature. no rain, clouds are always light and airy... etc, due to the factory operating the weather system within the dome perhaps. that changes when the uglydolls infiltrate, the sky in the institute turns to a dark greeny colour. and then when the two sides join, they destroy the dome.

anyways, perhaps during the winter, when the factory is shut down, they shut down the light and airy atmosphere of the institute too, leaving a cold, snowy breeze in its wake (especially during lou's earlier years). and i doubt his home is very warm either, as it's so large with barely any furniture (at least in the foyer shown in uglier truth).

and with lou's company over the years, i feel that after his bond with ox, he became desperate for the company again (who could blame him?) and tried his hardest to keep as many dolls by his side as possible, ending up with the spy girls and mandy (and perhaps the backup singers)(i don't know about them). he would probably manipulate them in some way to staying, perhaps threatening recycling and the washing machine out of pure desperation to keep someone around. so i don't think he'd be totally alone, but i feel that the spy girls and mandy were only close to him in a business relationship-type way. they were only there if he needed something to be done. he was the leader of the institute after all, he always seemed one level above the rest of the dolls, and being personally close to him seemed like something impossible.

and yeah, the assistance bots were there, but even if artificial intelligence somehow existed during those times, or if someone higher-up was controlling the robots, they wouldn't have a genuine bond with lou anyways, as they are just assistant robots who are meant for helping out with training and the gauntlet only (or so i think).

[accountsend]

Sales Automation: Streamlining Processes for Efficient Lead Generation

Article by Jonathan Bomser | CEO | AccountSend.com

In today's lightning-paced business ecosystem, the beacon of Sales Automation shines brighter than ever as a transformative force propelling lead generation into a realm of unprecedented efficiency and success. This voyage takes us through seven pivotal strategies that harness the true potential of Sales Automation, ensuring that you harness its power to revolutionize your lead generation journey.

DOWNLOAD THE SALES AUTOMATION INFOGRAPHIC HERE

Implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

Imagine a command center at your fingertips that orchestrates your lead interactions with finesse. This is where the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System, the linchpin of Sales Automation, comes into play. This technological marvel enables you to seamlessly centralize customer data, track interactions, and automate tasks with precision. Picture the possibilities as your sales team focuses on nurturing connections that drive conversions.

Utilize Marketing Automation Tools

Bid farewell to labor-intensive marketing efforts as Sales Automation brings forth the magic of marketing automation tools. These remarkable instruments streamline repetitive marketing tasks, from orchestrating email campaigns to nurturing leads and scheduling social media content. By crafting strategic workflows and triggers, you hold the power to deliver tailor-made messages that resonate with your prospects. The outcome? Engagement and conversion rates that soar to new heights.

Qualify Leads with Lead Scoring

In the labyrinth of potential leads, imagine having a compass that guides you to the most promising ones. Enter lead scoring, a beacon of clarity amidst the complexity. Through meticulous criteria encompassing demographic data, engagement metrics, and behavioral patterns, lead scoring empowers your sales team to prioritize leads ripe for conversion. This orchestration of efficiency elevates your conversion rates while maximizing your team's efforts.

Streamline Sales Processes with Workflow Automation

Embrace the liberation from manual, time-consuming sales processes through the elegance of workflow automation. Bid adieu to the mundane tasks of follow-ups, appointment scheduling, and proposal generation. Workflow automation transforms these into seamless symphonies, gifting your sales team precious time. This temporal freedom translates into a focus on nurturing relationships, cultivating an environment primed for deal closure.

Integrate Sales and Marketing Efforts

The synergy of sales and marketing isn't a mere concept; it's a dynamic strategy made tangible by Sales Automation. Witness the convergence of these vital forces as silos dissolve, and a harmonious collaboration emerges. Valuable insights flow seamlessly, lead progress is tracked cohesively, and communication flourishes throughout the sales cycle. The result? A seamless alliance that fuels conversions and magnifies results.

Implement Chatbots and AI-powered Assistants

In an era where responsiveness defines success, envision AI-powered chatbots as your digital allies. These innovative assistants redefine customer support and engagement by handling routine inquiries, offering instant responses, and even assisting in lead qualification. The outcome? Your team is unburdened, channeling their expertise into intricate tasks that propel your business forward.

Continuously Analyze and Optimize

Success isn't a static destination; it's an evolving journey. Data analysis becomes your compass in the realm of Sales Automation. Regularly delve into the wealth of insights harvested by your automation tools. Decode lead behavior, unravel conversion rates, and unveil sales performance intricacies. Armed with these insights, fine-tune your lead generation strategies, refine processes, and unearth optimization opportunities.

In essence, Sales Automation stands as the cornerstone of lead generation efficiency. Through adopting a CRM system, harnessing marketing automation tools, embracing lead scoring, automating sales workflows, aligning sales and marketing endeavors, integrating AI-powered support, and ceaselessly optimizing strategies, you can reshape your lead generation narrative. Embrace Sales Automation as the lifeblood of your sales strategy, and witness your lead generation expedition thrive with newfound efficiency and efficacy. The time has come to seize Sales Automation and redefine your lead generation journey.

[affiliateinz]

5 Laziest Ways to Make Money Online With ChatGPT

ChatGPT has ignited a wave of AI fever across the world. While it amazes many with its human-like conversational abilities, few know the money-making potential of this advanced chatbot. You can actually generate a steady passive income stream without much effort using GPT-3. Intrigued to learn how? Here are 5 Laziest Ways to Make Money Online With ChatGPT

Table of Contents

License AI-Written Books

Get ChatGPT to write complete books on trending or evergreen topics. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, guides – it can create them all. Self-publish these books online. The upfront effort is minimal after you prompt the AI. Let the passive royalties come in while you relax!

Generate SEO Optimized Blogs

Come up with a blog theme. Get ChatGPT to craft multiple optimized posts around related keywords. Put up the blog and earn advertising revenue through programs like Google AdSense as visitors pour in. The AI handles the hard work of researching topics and crafting content.

The Ultimate AI Commission Hack Revealed! Watch FREE Video for Instant Wealth!

Create Online Courses

Online courses are a lucrative passive income stream. Rather than spending weeks filming or preparing materials, have ChatGPT generate detailed course outlines and pre-written scripts. Convert these quickly into online lessons and sell to students.

Trade AI-Generated Stock Insights

ChatGPT can analyze data and return accurate stock forecasts. Develop a system of identifying trading signals based on the AI’s insights. Turn this into a monthly stock picking newsletter or alert service that subscribers pay for.

Build Niche Websites

Passive income favorites like niche sites take ages to build traditionally. With ChatGPT, get the AI to research winning niches, create articles, product reviews and on-page SEO optimization. Then drive organic search traffic and earnings on autopilot.

The Ultimate AI Commission Hack Revealed! Watch FREE Video for Instant Wealth!

The beauty of ChatGPT is that it can automate and expedite most manual, tedious tasks. With some strategic prompts, you can easily leverage this AI for passive income without burning yourself out. Give these lazy money-making methods a try!

Thank you for taking the time to read my rest of the article, 5 Laziest Ways to Make Money Online With ChatGPT

5 Laziest Ways to Make Money Online With ChatGPT

Affiliate Disclaimer :

Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission at NO ADDITIONAL cost to you if you decide to purchase something. While we receive affiliate compensation for reviews / promotions on this article, we always offer honest opinions, users experiences and real views related to the product or service itself. Our goal is to help readers make the best purchasing decisions, however, the testimonies and opinions expressed are ours only. As always you should do your own thoughts to verify any claims, results and stats before making any kind of purchase. Clicking links or purchasing products recommended in this article may generate income for this product from affiliate commissions and you should assume we are compensated for any purchases you make. We review products and services you might find interesting. If you purchase them, we might get a share of the commission from the sale from our partners. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended.

[megamijadeheart]

There's a genra of game called "Cookie Clicker" that I personally kind of detest.

You start with a Task. And if you do it well enough, fast enough, you can Expand and expanding unlocks the ability to Gain Minions (employees, villagers, survivers) who will start doing the base task for you, though not as well as you do as the Player. But them doing the thing now unlocks More Tasks. And you can Expand More and Gain More Minions. And it's a closed system with unlimited growth potential and the Minions don't have lives or get paid or sick or anything. They are mechanical slaves to Do the Task. And you, as the Player, get to do the fun bits of planning and organizing and reaping the benefits and expanding more and feeling very clever and accomplished.

The only reason I hate this style of game is because it is the game that people think American Capitalism is. People with wealth think they are the Player of the actual real world and other people are just the automated means by which to make the money number go up. And the Minions are fed the dream of becoming Players- that if they work that bit extra, if they are more efficient, more skilled, work harder- they can stop being a Minion and start hiring their own.

I hate that exploitation is so built into the American Ideal of what Success looks like. The idea that by hustling harder we minions can break out of the cycle of being exploited and become the exploiters instead. That that should be the goal somehow.

I wish the kinds of people who enjoy the feeling of Number Goes Up Means I'm Winning would play Cookie Clickers instead of. Like, the stock market. Or entrepreneurship. Because mentally they think they are playing a game to win, but this is the real world and people are being hurt by their exploitation and hoarding.

[phemiec]

Given your recent posts, what are your thoughts on the artstation stuff?

here's the thing, I've done more research in the past week into the ai art thing and while I personally am a nihilist chaos demon who believes art is anything and everything and wouldnt care if my art was used to train ai, i know people have to eat and practicality wins out over philosophy for me and I support artists over companies, period. in our current technocapitalist nightmare there is too much exploitation in the art industries as in all industries, and so I understand the fears artists face seeing yet another avenue for that exploitation. I guess I would just like to reiterate that ai panic is a symptom of our inhuman systems of wealth hoarding and no one is immune. If artists are mad about this they should be equally mad about automation replacing skilled trades. It's the same thing to me and I still see the main problem as being universal income insecurity, and even if we put the stamp out on ai art, something else will happen, artists and all people aren't safe from obsolescence until we develop a system that puts people before product.

[ambushingghostart]

Blog numero 3

How has cyberfemism disrupt barriers that oppresses women from adapting in a world of technology?  

Technology has connected people globally, interlinking networks with economical wealth but to this day women are being marginalized in a system that favors men. Cyberfeminism empowerment in digital technology has transform the structure in the framework and distributed a system that has oppressed women. Donna Haraway’s “cyborg” theory of becoming part human and part machine has given women the ability to challenge traditional gender roles or resist oppressive patriarch structure. The influence of cyberfeminism has help protect women with technology and is demonstrated on the website Hollabacknyc that encourage women to document and report unwanted harassment. The platform brought awareness to the unsafe environment for women and a protection to combat unwanted advances. 

Why do we create bias algorithms? 

Technology was supposed to help humanity share information quicker and improve people's lives but instead technology and its algorithms help corporations, health care and banking systems with the ability to target and marginalized groups of people. These specialized algorithms that monitor your data and retrieve your information are automated to deny benefits to people of color in a higher percentage and can create economic hardships such in the reading in Automating Inequality (Eubanks). A system that is programmed to make money instead of helping is a flawed tool and shows that technology is manipulated to create barriers especially in underserved communities. 

We need policies by government and social groups to monitor how healthcare is being provided and administered to communities.  

Why is technology leaving minority women behind? 

In the United States technology is more accessible to certain communities than others but women are the most affected, especially women of color. In Rethinking Cyberfeminism, women in countries with developing infrastructure are being left behind in technology and not being integrated to the economic system. Development and innovation are being manufactured in a high rate, but the power continue to create barrier to women because of systemic issues that affect gender roles in many developing countries.  

Is technology our new security system?  

In the video Race and Technology by Nicole Brown highlights how technology has been automated to police citizens and minorities communities in many different sectors of daily life. These algorithms are created to monitor and target groups with biased data, and it can be considered racial profiling. Surveillance has been implemented with technology by using artificial intelligence which is a flawed system known to make mistakes. How secure should we feel when the systems in place to make you feel safe can end up targeting you because of how you look? 

How do we combat facial recognition when it is wrong? 

How do you prove your innocence when a system is programmed to be correct 99 percent of the time? In the Nijeer Parks story of how he was wrongly accused and jailed for a crime he did not commit because of the mistake of facial recognition technology was used to find a suspect. Another Arrest and Jail Time Dude to a Bad Facial Recognition Match by Kashmir Hill covers how technology and police surveillance is not being criticized by any outside safety nets. We need accountability and a system that protects people from being detained for data and manipulated algorithms. 

Brown, N (2020). Race and Technology.  

Daniels, J (2009). Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment. The Feminist Press 

Eubanks, Automating Inequality. Pdf 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Collective Intelligence Institute

History is written by the winners, which is why Luddite is a slur meaning “technophobe” and not a badge of honor meaning, “Person who goes beyond asking what technology does, to asking who it does it for and who it does it to.”

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/07/full-stack-luddites/#subsidiarity

Luddites weren’t anti-machine activists, they were pro-worker advocates, who believed that the spoils of automation shouldn’t automatically be allocated to the bosses who skimmed the profits from their labor and spent them on machines that put them out of a job. There is no empirical right answer about who should benefit from automation, only social contestation, which includes all the things that desperate people whose access to food, shelter and comfort are threatened might do, such as smashing looms and torching factories.

The question of who should benefit from automation is always urgent, and it’s also always up for grabs. Automation can deepen and reinforce unfair arrangements, or it can upend them. No one came off a mountain with two stone tablets reading “Thy machines shall condemn labor to the scrapheap of the history while capital amasses more wealth and power.” We get to choose.

Capital’s greatest weapon in this battle is inevitabilism, sometimes called “capitalist realism,” summed up with Frederic Jameson’s famous quote “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” (often misattributed to Žižek). A simpler formulation can be found in the doctrine of Margaret Thatcher: “There Is No Alternative,” or even Dante’s “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”

Hope — alternatives — lies in reviving our structural imagination, thinking through other ways of managing our collective future. Last May, Wired published a brilliant article that did just that, by Divya Siddarth, Danielle Allen and E. Glen Weyl:

https://www.wired.com/story/web3-blockchain-decentralization-governance/

That article, “The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question,” set forth a taxonomy of decentralization, exploring ways that power could be distributed, checked, and shared. It went beyond blockchains and hyperspeculative, Ponzi-prone “mechanism design,” prompting me to subtitle my analysis “Not all who decentralize are bros”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/12/crypto-means-cryptography/#p2p-rides-again

That article was just one installment in a long, ongoing project by the authors. Now, Siddarth has teamed up with Saffron Huang to launch the Collective Intelligence project, “an incubator for new governance models for transformative technology.”

https://cip.org/whitepaper

The Collective Intelligence Project’s research focus is “collective intelligence capabilities: decision-making technologies, processes, and institutions that expand a group’s capacity to construct and cooperate towards shared goals.” That is, asking more than how automation works, but who it should work for.

Collective Intelligence institutions include “markets…nation-state democracy…global governance institutions and transnational corporations, standards-setting organizations and judicial courts, the decision structures of universities, startups, and nonprofits.” All of these institutions let two or more people collaborate, which is to say, it lets us do superhuman things — things that transcend the limitations of the lone individual.

Our institutions are failing us. Confidence in democracy is in decline, and democratic states have failed to coordinate to solve urgent crises, like the climate emergency. Markets are also failing us, “flatten[ing] complex values in favor of over-optimizing for cost, profit, or share price.”

Neither traditional voting systems nor speculative markets are up to the task of steering our emerging, transformative technologies — neither machine learning, nor bioengineering, nor labor automation. Hence the mission of CIP: “Humans created our current CI systems to help achieve collective goals. We can remake them.”

The plan to do this is in two phases:

Value elicitation: “ways to develop scalable processes for surfacing and combining group beliefs, goals, values, and preferences.” Think of tools like Pol.is, which Taiwan uses to identify ideas that have the broadest consensus, not just the most active engagement.

Remake technology institutions: “technology development beyond the existing options of non-profit, VC-funded startup, or academic project.” Practically, that’s developing tools and models for “decentralized governance and metagovernance, internet standards-setting,” and consortia.

The founders pose this as a solution to “The Transformative Technology Trilemma” — that is, the supposed need to trade off between participation, progress and safety.

This trilemma usually yields one of three unsatisfactory outcomes:

Capitalist Acceleration: “Sacrificing safety for progress while maintaining basic participation.” Think of private-sector geoengineering, CRISPR experimentation, or deployment of machine learning tools. AKA “bro shit.”

Authoritarian Technocracy: “Sacrificing participation for progress while maintaining basic safety.” Think of the vulnerable world hypothesis weirdos who advocate for universal, total surveillance to prevent “runaway AI,” or, of course, the Chinese technocratic system.

Shared Stagnation: “Sacrificing progress for participation while maintaining basic safety.” A drive for local control above transnational coordination, unwarranted skepticism of useful technologies (AKA “What the Luddites are unfairly accused of”).

The Institute’s goal is to chart a fourth path, which seeks out the best parts of all three outcomes, while leaving behind their flaws. This includes deliberative democracy tools like sortition and assemblies, backed by transparent machine learning tools that help surface broadly held views from within a community, not just the views held by the loudest participants.

This dovetails into creating new tech development institutions to replace the default, venture-backed startup for “societally-consequential, infrastructural projects,” including public benefit companies, focused research organizations, perpetual purpose trusts, co-ops, etc.

It’s a view I find compelling, personally, enough so that I have joined the organization as a volunteer advisor.

This vision resembles the watershed groups in Ruthanna Emrys’s spectacular “Half-Built Garden,” which was one of the most inspiring novels I read last year (a far better source of stfnal inspo than the technocratic fantasies of the “Golden Age”):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/26/aislands/#dead-ringers

And it revives the long-dormant, utterly necessary spirit of the Luddites, which you can learn a lot more about in Brian Merchant’s forthcoming, magesterial “Blood In the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech”:

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

This week (Feb 8–17), I’ll be in Australia, touring my book Chokepoint Capitalism with my co-author, Rebecca Giblin. We’ll be in Brisbane tomorrow (Feb 8), and then we’re doing a remote event for NZ on Feb 9. Next are Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. I hope to see you!

[Image ID: An old Ace Double paperback. The cover illustration has been replaced with an 18th century illustration depicting a giant Ned Ludd leading an army of Luddites who have just torched a factory. The cover text reads: 'The Luddites. Smashing looms was their tactic, not their goal.']

[cutebrains]

Transform Your School with India’s First Moodle Integrated System – CuteBrains!

In the rapidly evolving world of education, having the right tools can make all the difference. CuteBrains, India’s first school management system integrated with Moodle, is revolutionizing the way schools operate by merging the best of administrative efficiency and innovative learning. Designed to cater to the unique needs of Indian schools, CuteBrains offers a comprehensive solution that not only streamlines administrative tasks but also enhances the learning experience for students and teachers alike.

Why CuteBrains?

CuteBrains sets itself apart by being the first in India to integrate Moodle, the globally recognized learning management system (LMS), directly into school management. This powerful combination ensures that schools have a robust platform that handles both academic and administrative needs seamlessly. Here’s how CuteBrains is transforming schools across the country:

1. Seamless Administration and Academic Integration

CuteBrains integrates Moodle’s extensive learning tools directly into the school management system, allowing for a unified platform where administrative tasks and academic activities work hand in hand. Teachers can manage subjects, assignments, and grading within the same platform used for attendance, fee management, and student records. This integration eliminates the need for multiple software solutions, simplifying the workflow for teachers and administrators.

2. Enhanced Learning Experience

The Moodle integration in CuteBrains brings a wealth of interactive learning tools to the classroom. Teachers can easily create and share study materials, assignments, quizzes, and more, all within a digital environment that students find engaging and intuitive. The platform supports blended learning, online classes, and even virtual discussions, making education accessible anytime, anywhere. By incorporating these advanced tools, CuteBrains empowers teachers to deliver personalized and effective learning experiences.

3. Administrative Processes

For school administrators, CuteBrains offers a host of features that reduce the daily workload. The platform automates attendance, fee collection, timetable management, and transport tracking, allowing staff to focus on more strategic tasks. The integration with Moodle means that data flows seamlessly between administrative and academic sections, providing a complete overview of each student’s performance, attendance, and progress.

4. Simplified Communication

Communication between teachers, students, and parents is made easy with CuteBrains. Announcements, grades, attendance reports, and important updates can be shared instantly through the platform, keeping everyone informed and engaged. The integrated messaging system allows for direct communication, reducing delays and enhancing collaboration.

5. Advanced Analytics and Reporting

CuteBrains equips schools with powerful analytics tools that provide insights into student performance, attendance trends, and administrative efficiency. These data-driven insights help educators identify areas that need attention and enable administrators to make informed decisions that enhance school operations. The integration with Moodle ensures that academic data is always up-to-date and easily accessible.

6. Secure and User-Friendly Interface

Security and user experience are at the heart of CuteBrains. The platform is designed to be intuitive, ensuring that all users—from administrators to students—can navigate and utilize the features with ease. Data security measures ensure that all information is protected, giving schools peace of mind.

7. Tailored for Schools

CuteBrains understands the unique challenges faced by educational institutions. With customizable features, the platform adapts to the specific needs of each school, whether it’s managing handling complex fee structures, or aligning with national educational standards.

Conclusion

CuteBrains is not just a school management system; it’s a complete solution that integrates the best of administrative management with innovative learning. As India’s first Moodle-integrated system, it offers schools a unique opportunity to modernize their operations, enhance the educational experience, and stay ahead in the digital age. Transform your school with CuteBrains today and discover the future of education management!

[senseitko]

I asked ChatGPT what the world would look like if consumers didn’t need to make money. Here’s what it said:

The scenario you're describing envisions a society where the economy operates entirely on the principles of communal ownership and government provision, eliminating the need for individuals to earn or use money for personal needs. This is similar to some interpretations of a post-scarcity society or certain forms of socialism. Here's what the world might be like under such a system:

#1. **Economic Structure**

- **Government Role:** The government would play a central role in managing resources, production, and distribution. All essential services—housing, healthcare, education, transportation, and food—would be provided by the state.

- **Businesses:** While businesses might still exist to produce goods and services, their operations would be focused on resource management and supply chains rather than profit. Currency would be used solely as a tool for businesses to acquire materials and services necessary for production.

#2. **Work and Employment**

- **Motivation for Work:** Without the need for wages, work motivation would likely shift from financial necessity to personal fulfillment, social contribution, or passion. People would choose careers based on interest and aptitude, leading to potentially higher job satisfaction.

- **Labor Dynamics:** There might be greater flexibility in job roles, with people more easily transitioning between careers or pursuing multiple interests. However, there could also be challenges in ensuring that all necessary but less desirable jobs are filled, unless these are automated or incentivized in other ways.

#3. **Education and Personal Development**

- **Free Education:** Access to education would be universal and free, allowing people to pursue their interests and develop their skills without financial barriers. This could lead to a highly educated and versatile population.

- **Lifelong Learning:** The absence of financial constraints would likely encourage lifelong learning, with people frequently updating their skills or exploring new fields of knowledge.

#4. **Social and Cultural Life**

- **Equality and Social Cohesion:** With basic needs universally met, income inequality would be significantly reduced, potentially leading to a more cohesive and egalitarian society. Social status might be determined more by personal achievements and contributions than by wealth.

- **Cultural Flourishing:** With more free time and less financial stress, people might engage more in creative and cultural activities, leading to a flourishing of the arts, sciences, and community life.

#5. **Economic Challenges**

- **Resource Allocation:** Ensuring that resources are efficiently allocated without market signals like price could be challenging. The government would need to develop advanced methods for predicting demand and managing supply to avoid shortages or surpluses.

- **Innovation and Efficiency:** The system would need to maintain innovation and efficiency without the traditional profit motive. This could be fostered through other incentives, like recognition, personal fulfillment, or societal contribution.

#6. **Impact on Community and Environment**

- **Community Focus:** With residual business profits being reinvested in community upkeep, there would likely be a strong emphasis on maintaining and improving public spaces, schools, and local infrastructure. Communities might be more involved in local decision-making.

- **Sustainability:** The focus on communal ownership and resource management could lead to more sustainable practices, as the government would likely prioritize long-term environmental health over short-term profits.

#7. **Potential Drawbacks**

- **Bureaucracy and Centralization:** The system might become overly bureaucratic, with a central government making most economic decisions. This could lead to inefficiencies or a lack of responsiveness to local needs.

- **Loss of Individual Freedom:** Some might feel that their personal freedom is restricted, especially if the government dictates where they live, what jobs are available, or how resources are allocated.

- **Potential for Stagnation:** Without competition or the profit motive, there could be less innovation in some areas, leading to potential stagnation in technological or economic progress.

#8. **Global Implications**

- **International Relations:** If this system were adopted by only one country or a few countries, it could lead to tensions with more capitalist economies. Trade, investment, and international relations would need to be carefully managed to ensure stability.

This system would be a radical departure from the current global economic model and would require a profound shift in societal values and governance structures. It could potentially lead to a more equitable and sustainable society but would also face significant challenges in implementation and maintenance.

[wobblydev]

I like the art but you should clarify that it's crony capitalism, or corporatism that is the issue not capitalism itself.

i would disagree. there is not an ideal scenario where so-called "corporatism" is not an inherent and inevitable byproduct of capitalism. i am assuming we are discussing corporatism as used colloquially.

let's examine what mechanisms might be required to mitigate the power and influence of corporations in a capitalist economy:

a well-documented and observed feature of capitalism is the trend toward monopoly. to defeat this trend, a capitalist state would require the rigorous enforcement of powerful antitrust laws.

another commonly observed feature of capitalism is exploitation of workers and the environment, all merely commodities and raw materials for extraction in the eyes of any successful capitalist enterprise. to maintain some standard of living and safety for workers and to protect our shared habitat, a capitalist state would need to enforce strict laws protecting the health and safety of workers and the quality and sustainability of the environment.

to combat monopoly and devastation, capitalism must be reigned in by a powerful state. however, in one of the great contradictions of capitalism, regulation is functionally counterintuitive to the primary goal of capitalism—the acquisition of more capital.

recognising that regulation inhibits acquisition, capitalists use their wealth and power to bend the state to their will. anti-trust laws get abandoned or become unenforceable in the interest of enormous trans-national oligopolies. environmental and labor protections similarly get attacked in favor of laissez faire accommodations, or capital flight sees corporations move to cheaper labor markets, kept artificially cheap by the military arm of the imperialist state operating in defense of capital.

one may argue that politicians of character do sometimes stand up to corporate interests, and indeed they do. sometimes the law is upheld and corporations are held accountable for their actions. if only more ethical politicians were elected then perhaps capitalism's most dangerous trends could be kept in check?

perhaps.

however—i ask—why struggle so hard to maintain a system that is fundamentally at odds with itself? the trend towards monopoly and the inherent conflict of labor and environmental safety aside, we haven't even discussed the contradictions of automation, artificial scarcity and the trend towards fascism.

capitalism is corporatism. crony capitalism is just capitalism.

i recognise that i probably haven't changed your mind. thank you for the ask.