Hugo

He does not seem to share that same reverence for humanity; his reverence is reserved for the fantastical AGI gods he seems determined to bring into being. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Many of the billionaires at the height of Silicon Valley adhere to an anti-human worldview that not only sees humans merging with machines, but being consumed by them. Altman has paid to have his brain frozen when he dies, in the hope that it can be uploaded to a computer sometime in the future, and has argued that “the merge” — where humans and machines become one — is essential for the future of humanity. This is all in line with the longtermist worldview, which argues the value of people alive today and people who might live a million years from now are equivalent. If an action today might help ensure billions of people will live in the far future, even if it means harming millions in the present, that is justified under their anti-human calculus. It’s a philosophy that seems to exist purely to justify the science fictional pursuits of tech billionaires while their actions magnify the suffering of billions of actual people. In fact, those future people they envision are not people at all, but “post-humans” who live in vast computer simulations, not as flesh and blood.

Altman’s denigration of humanity is part of a wider anti-human worldview the tech industry has adopted to justify doing whatever they want, regardless of the wider impacts on the public. If communities suffer to realize Altman’s AI ambitions, that’s fine by him.

disconnect.blog/sam-altmans-...

Thank you kindly for your consideration

Both the time and extent of the stay are amply malleable, depending on your convenience. If a short stay were not possible, it would nonetheless be invaluable for my PhD to be able to talk to you and discuss certain topics regarding your works, whether it be in writing, online or in person.

As you may know, a short stay abroad is an integral part of any doctorate thesis. I am currently in the process of deciding a destination for my mobility project, and evidently there would be no more perfect environment than under your tutelage.

@rsennett.bsky.social Dear Prof. Sennett,
My name is Hugo R. Braga and I am a PhD student at the University of Oviedo, Spain, writing my Philosophy dissertation on your works. Specifically, my aim is to take a philosophical approach to the dual concept of social wellbeing-malaise in your writing

I sign off on this except I wanna clarify one thing: this is not "human nature," this is specifically how authoritarians feel. like, in the Bob Altemeyer, "high right-wing authoritarian score" sense: the desire to be "the norm" is an authoritarian impulse not everyone feels equally.

the reason humanists are skeptical of “AI” is not Luddism. it’s because we can read and analyze discourse and it’s been clear from the start that “AI” was a branding umbrella used to create an aura of inevitability for machine learning (whose primary uses were surveillance and hyper-exploitation).

Vamosss

I guess if a gang of masked men threaten to shoot you if you don't pull over, it doesn't matter if they are ICE or not

its amazing how chatgpt knows everything about subjects I know nothing about, but is wrong like 40% of the time in things im an expert on. not going to think about this any further

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It's always a matter of will not resources.

Structural abandonment: the stagnation of wages, the lack of public housing and the progressive rusting of all that is public is a design feature of the system

A Good Life in Bad Times - The Ideas Letter Sennett probes how individuals can live decently under persecution, weaving the story of his own family’s experience under McCarthyism into a broader meditation on resistance, power, and survival. Com...

Schools, hospitals, housing, libraries, playgrounds, and the other institutions of civil society have been left without resources. Like the rusting bridges of New York City, they show undeniable and dangerous signs of collapse. Yet our Neronian rulers have had no abiding interest in making them work

I’m enjoying this new genre of “I love how insane everyone is becoming” movie

📱El Gobierno quiere llevar a X, Meta y Tik Tok ante los tribunales por la difusión de material de violencia sexual contra la infancia.
https://elsal.to/46484

hello and welcome to the political genius exam. here is question one. which is a more compelling message:

- the president is sending armies to occupy cities and kidnap and kill people and your town could be next
- a meal at the cheesecake factory that previously cost $100 now costs $104.9

Spain has raised the minimum wage a stunning 66% since 2018, all under the presidency of Pedro Sanchez. These last 8 years have meant a significant progress for the working class, in spite of global trends