Weather, smoke, orange skies, and AI--threats abound

The weather continues to be dreary and un-summerlike; the air we breathe continues to be filled with particulate matter from wildfires-- the photos from NYC and other metropolitan areas are frightening. The air is literally toxic, the skies are orange. 

So, how about those climate emergency deniers? 

Ugh. When the precise things that science has warned us about happen, there are still those people who seek other explanations, rooted in everything from Divine Retribution to blaming immigrants. It's time we took a hard look at what and how people come to their wrong-headed, noggin-knocking stupidity.

And yet, there's still a fast-moving tidal wave of reactionary behavior at the highest levels in many states: by gutting curricula, we can make the bad things go away. 

Then there's the very real existential and practical threat from AI; we are, if we are not careful, going to be algorithmed to extinction. I know, that sounds alarmist, but there are next to no guardrails in place to regulate AI content, and no one in a position to do so seems to be all that worried-- actually, they are more worried that regulating AI will curtail the financial gains to be made from it.

Financial gains again. Not the safety of humanity, just the dollars.

It makes me so sad. We have (had?) so much potential.

Stay dry,

C