Working Class Hero

As soon as you're born, they make you feel small
By giving you no time, instead of it all
'Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

They hurt you at home, and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever, and they despise a fool
'Til you're so f*cking crazy you can't follow their rules

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function, you're so full of fear

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still f*cking peasants as far as I can see

There's room at the top, they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

-- John Lennon (1970)

AI's insurmountable limit

Machines do not essentially think. They don't know anything. There are systems of gates, of dumb components. They lack creativity and aren’t capable of what only human minds and imaginations can generate. Most neuroscientists believe that consciousness is just a byproduct of chemistry. Too many scientists imagine that if logical processing is accelerated to a high enough rate that somehow consciousness will emerge. I believe that this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the mind. And that (misunderstanding) undermines much of the prevailing neuroscience and almost all of computer science that purports to be imitating minds (i.e., artificial intelligence). The smartest people in the world believe in this materialistic superstition. They believe that the universe is explainable entirely in terms of chemistry and physics. That assumption, I believe, is manifestly false. But it is a religious conviction underlying almost all neuroscience and computer science.

-- George Gilder (The Daily Reckoning) June 22, 2019

tomorrow is already here

Originally the set-up [was] to serve society. Now the roles have been reversed -- they want society to serve the institutions. 
-- Tim Gane / Laetitia Sadier (Stereolab) 1996

modern culture

"There’s nothing in the design of modern culture which inspires people to be great and to be grand and to think in terms of grand thoughts."
-- Ryan Adams, Salon interview (10/9/11)

palo alto

In a city of the future, it is difficult to concentrate
Meet the boss, meet the wife
Everybody's happy, everyone is made for life.

In a city of the future, it is difficult to find a space
I'm too busy to see you; you're too busy to wait

But I'm okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
I'm okay, how are you? I hope you're okay too.

Every one of those days when the sky is California blue
With a beautiful bombshell, I throw myself into my work
I'm too lazy, I've been kidding myself for so long

But I’m okay, how are you?
Thanks for asking, thanks for asking
I’m okay, how are you? I hope you’re okay too.

-- Thom Yorke (Radiohead) 1998