In todays news...

[Count Steer]

It has become so difficult to find any reliable source of true information it has become virtually pointless. Rather than worry about whether or not A.I. is self aware or conscious, we should be more worried about whether or not it is lying. Convincingly!

Hold on, i thought the AI was taking over the world and bringing on the end of times about this time last year ? Now you're not worried about it.

Oh, I think the worry isn't about it becoming sentient and Terminator kicking off it's about the sentient minds that own it and what they do with it. Seems a reasonable concern to me!

[Screwdriver]

Nitpicking. Elderley geezers make bad presidents - I said it 3 years ago, but my opinion is ridiculous and yours is apparently astute and learned. FFS.

Give us another prediction to shoot at because this is hilarious.

Well, apart from you, who exactly is suggesting my opinions are "astute or learned"?

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Noam Chomsky, David Attenborough, Frank Lloyd Wright. Old age is no indication of ability. It is entirely down to the individual.

Biden became cognitively impaired many years ago despite your insistence that he did not. He lost his mental acuity AND he was old, you might argue he lost his mental ability because he was old but that does not mean everybody does.

...and yes, for various reasons, I am somewhat interested in how brain function may decline over time.

You want a prediction? The Dems will have another pop at Trump before he becomes elected if only because he will be in office before they can delete all of the evidence for who was behind the last failed assassination. They literally have nothing to lose.

Too obvious? OK well, failing that, some new trumped up charges will emerge for them to throw him in jail prior to the election or just for the debate which would become a Kamala Harris election advert. Also an obvious ploy?

OK the BIG ONE I have been worried about for some time: if all else fails, history suggests a failing regime will deliberately start a war. It won't take much to tip Russia over the edge, a StormShadow in the heart of Moscow would do it...

[weeksy]

You want a prediction? The Dems will have another pop at Trump before he becomes elected if only because he will be in office before they can delete all of the evidence for who was behind the last failed assassination. They literally have nothing to lose.

It'd be worth it just to see the reaction

[Cousin Jack]

Oh, I think the worry isn't about it becoming sentient and Terminator kicking off it's about the sentient minds that own it and what they do with it. Seems a reasonable concern to me!

AI is going to be a useful tool, and it will change the world. However if you believe it is going to make things better for the average punter you are deluded. Like virtually every game-changing invention before it it will be used by the very rich to make themselves even richer, it will be used by most big companies to manage with fewer people, it will be used by politicians to mislead their electorate, and it will be misused by criminals to scam people.

Computers have already changed the world. I can recall when they were predicted to free us from drudgery, most people were going to have a 3 day week and a 4 day weekend. That hasn't happened, but all of the above consequences have.

[weeksy]

most people were going to have a 3 day week and a 4 day weekend. That hasn't happened, but all of the above consequences have.

Yeah fuck that, i'm not working 3 days !!!

[Screwdriver]

It has become so difficult to find any reliable source of true information it has become virtually pointless. Rather than worry about whether or not A.I. is self aware or conscious, we should be more worried about whether or not it is lying. Convincingly!

Hold on, i thought the AI was taking over the world and bringing on the end of times about this time last year ? Now you're not worried about it.

Oh, I think the worry isn't about it becoming sentient and Terminator kicking off it's about the sentient minds that own it and what they do with it. Seems a reasonable concern to me!

It is a worry and things just got more complex. Zuckerberg has decided he can't compete with OpenAI/ChatGPT etc. in the closed source pay per view model - so he's going scorched earth and releasing his AI (Llama3), fully open source, including weights. That means everyone has access to what is currently the latest and greatest AI. You, me, the CCP, Iran, Russia...

So yeah, who "controls" or has access to these monumentally influential systems just became monumentally more numerous!

@weeksy I haven't said I am not worried, just that as things develop, another issue arises. We still do not know what effect A.I. is going to have as it becomes more and more connected. Nor does anyone know how these systems are being used currently but for example, I don't think Brazil would have been able to rig the election so easily without AI to make the numbers look at least plausible. Obviously mail-in/online voting with specifically Dominion voting machines was the key issue. Now Brazil is the most recent country to fall to totalitarianism, makes you wonder who's next.

[Cousin Jack]

Now Brazil is the most recent country to fall to totalitarianism, makes you wonder who's next.

It's a race! The US is becoming more polarized by the day, and the UK is not too far behind. France and Germany have got the message and are hurrying to catch up.

[weeksy]

[Wossname]

I thought we had a thread specifically for US politics ? Yeah, look - just over there.

Any chance you could keep it there and leave this one for other stuff?

[DefTrap]

Computers have already changed the world. I can recall when they were predicted to free us from drudgery, most people were going to have a 3 day week and a 4 day weekend. That hasn't happened, but all of the above consequences have.

Only if you subscibed to the Tomorrows World 'Blue Peter' view of technology where by now we'd all have cheap & subservient robots to do all the shit jobs and flying about like Buck Rogers.

Most of us are working in office jobs because technology-led jobs have opened up (jobs that my parent's generation could never have dreamed of), or 'manual' jobs that have been vastly aided by progress in technology. 70 years ago a significant proportion of us would be down mines, in factories, in fields - worn to a husk by 50.

[ZRX61]

More than a little awkward....

https://notrickszone.com/2024/09/10/sat ... ion-trend/

[Taipan]

More than a little awkward....

https://notrickszone.com/2024/09/10/sat ... ion-trend/

Is it right that TN passed a law to ban all that and they now have clear blue skies?

[Count Steer]

More than a little awkward....

https://notrickszone.com/2024/09/10/sat ... ion-trend/

This review of his other output is also a little awkward. (He claimed, incorrectly, that sea levels aren't rising). Perhaps his output is not as scientific as it tries to look.

https://science.feedback.org/review/rat ... rs-claims/

Edit: I tried to find out a little more about the author. Interesting that the name is similar to a bona fide academic with just the 's' missing off the end.

[Screwdriver]

More than a little awkward....

https://notrickszone.com/2024/09/10/sat ... ion-trend/

Even more awkward:

https://annielab.org/2022/01/05/investi ... formation/


"Repeat offender
Claims in NoTricksZone have been debunked by various fact-checking organizations in the past. American fact-checking website Media Bias / Fact Check determined the website to be a propagator of pseudoscience with little factual reporting.~"

[ZRX61]

Oh noes! They cherry pick data? You mean just like EVERY other website?

[Count Steer]

Oh noes! They cherry pick data? You mean just like EVERY other website?

No. They publish pseudoscience based on cherry picked data to support a particular agenda, which supporters of the agenda propagate around the web.

[Yambo]

Interesting how they are blaming whistleblowers, maybe they should blame the CPS for rigging evidence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c05j4dng9q0t

Lady Justice Thirlwall tells the hearing that since the Court of Appeal judgment rejecting Letby’s appeal was handed down, there has been a “huge outpouring of comment” from some quarters about the validity of her convictions.

Lady Thirlwall says this has come, as far as she is aware, almost entirely from people who did not attend the trial.

She says that “noise” has caused “enormous additional distress” to the parents of those babies.

The inquiry seems to be making assumptions and dismissing experts before it begins.

I have no idea whether Letby is actually guilty or innocent but a fair few people who sat through the trial and appeal are adamant that there was not one bit of physical evidence that she killed anyone. She was convicted on purely circumstantial evidence and to get 15 life sentences is a bit worrying.

It is also mooted that her defence was inadequate which should be grounds for appeal. Let's face it, it's not as if the UK justice system has always been just.

*Edit* 15 whole life sentences

[Yorick]

Interesting how they are blaming whistleblowers, maybe they should blame the CPS for rigging evidence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c05j4dng9q0t

Lady Justice Thirlwall tells the hearing that since the Court of Appeal judgment rejecting Letby’s appeal was handed down, there has been a “huge outpouring of comment” from some quarters about the validity of her convictions.

Lady Thirlwall says this has come, as far as she is aware, almost entirely from people who did not attend the trial.

She says that “noise” has caused “enormous additional distress” to the parents of those babies.

The inquiry seems to be making assumptions and dismissing experts before it begins.

I have no idea whether Letby is actually guilty or innocent but a fair few people who sat through the trial and appeal are adamant that there was not one bit of physical evidence that she killed anyone. She was convicted on purely circumstantial evidence and to get 7 life sentences is a bit worrying.

It is also mooted that her defence was inadequate which should be grounds for appeal. Let's face it, it's not as if the UK justice system has always been just.

I didn't follow it too closely, but there's no smoke without fire.

I do hope they truth prevails.

[Mr. Dazzle]

More than a little awkward....

https://notrickszone.com/2024/09/10/sat ... ion-trend/

You might want to go and actually read the source paper they're referring to

[Yambo]

Interesting how they are blaming whistleblowers, maybe they should blame the CPS for rigging evidence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c05j4dng9q0t

The inquiry seems to be making assumptions and dismissing experts before it begins.

I have no idea whether Letby is actually guilty or innocent but a fair few people who sat through the trial and appeal are adamant that there was not one bit of physical evidence that she killed anyone. She was convicted on purely circumstantial evidence and to get 7 life sentences is a bit worrying.

It is also mooted that her defence was inadequate which should be grounds for appeal. Let's face it, it's not as if the UK justice system has always been just.

I didn't follow it too closely, but there's no smoke without fire.

I do hope they truth prevails.

That's pretty much how she was convicted. It's not the best way to condemn people - she's lucky we don't have the death penalty because I'm sure there would be people wanting to see her hung even though there was no physical evidence against her.