I’m blogging, yes indeed, I’m slogging…

A brief introduction…

Hi! I’m Pete, and I’m a pretty weird person.

No, really. By many standards of normal, polite society, I am considered weird or eccentric. Anyone who reads this blog will, without a doubt, come to that realization very quickly.

The older I get, the more I realize that I am very much the square peg that has tried to shave off my edges to slip into the round hole. To quote Roger Waters from his album ‘Radio Kaos’: But I don’t fit, I feel alien and strange, kinda out of range.

At this point in my life, however, I am perfectly ok with this. That certainly wasn’t always the case, but years of beating one’s head against walls has one wonderful side effect:

It feels so good when you stop.

I used to bask in the glow of the fires of a society flaming out of control, that burn white hot and threaten to incinerate any and all that venture too close.

Now, I derive no pleasure from, what I consider, the death throes of our society, belief systems, planet, and ultimately, our species. Those same years of self-abuse have bestowed a perspective I didn’t truly see, nor understand, in my youth.

It would be weird to sit back and, not just see, but understand where we appear to be going off the rails, and grin at our folly like watching the grinding machinations of a circus sideshow.

I’m weird, just not that weird.

Let’s get Funkyyyyy!

It’s 1:11am, and I have been home from work for a little over an hour. I just wanted to get a start on this before going to bed, so this is going to be a bit abbreviated.

I am a big fan of the YouTube channel, The Why Files.

Conspiracy theories, paranormal activity, myths, urban legends – you name it, I love it!

That is not to say that I believe in most of them. Very few, actually. I consider myself to be a skeptic, but I really want to believe. That’s why I love the show.

The host, AJ, goes into each episode telling the stories as they have been circulated for years, then sets out to debunk what he can. He and his team do an incredible amount of research on the topics. That was the biggest selling point for me. He’s entertaining (has a goldfish sidekick named Hecklefish), yet presents the material in such a way as to let you make up your own mind.

…and I’m back!

Well rested (as well as usual, anyway) and starting the day off right, by writing!

So, back to The Why Files…sort of…stick with me 🙂

The reason my first blog post declared me as weird is, first and foremost, to establish that as fact, but also as a segue into topics that reside on the fringe of our societies, beliefs, and consciousness. Thus the title, ‘Let’s get Funkyyyy!’

I have had some strange things happen in my life. I’m pretty sure I saw a ghost when I was a kid. Could have been a very vivid dream, but damn it seemed real. May have seen an alien peeking in my window (it was on the second floor, with a sheer drop to the ground), but that could have also been a dream. In my late teens, a car disappeared while I was following a distance behind (with a corroborating witness). I don’t mean that I glanced away and when I looked back it was gone. It didn’t turn off on a side road while I wasn’t paying attention. I mean it was there one moment while I was looking directly at it, then it vanished. Poof, gone. Without the poof. Just gone.

Probably the most intense and memorable experience, though, was with a Ouija board. I’ve done research since the incident, and can roundly reject the theories suggesting that unconscious tremors and movements cause the planchette to move, making it appear that spirits are controlling the movement.

That wouldn’t explain my stereo stopping in the middle of a cassette, then playing the opposite direction.

Perhaps I should explain.

First, my friend and I had a lot of odd things happen when we were hanging out. He was the corroborating witness mentioned above. We delved into the fringe topics like psychic abilities, ghosts, Ouija, and anything else that seemed cool.

This was long before the internet, so we were limited in the scope of our research. We made some strides, though. In retrospect, we were stumbling blindly in territories it is best to enter with knowledge, wisdom, and eyes wide open. Our minds were open, but we had the daring and foolhardiness of youth to blind us to potential pitfalls.

My friend brought the Ouija board to my house one day. I didn’t know much about them at the time, but he had seen the movie ‘Witchboard’ the previous night and decided we needed to give it a try. Of course, I was game (pardon the pun – Ouija has been marketed as a board game for decades. Goes to show how foolhardy the rest of the our race can be, too).

He unpacked the board and planchette and we read the instructions. No sense going into this blindly, right? The planchette was a stylized plastic triangle with felt runners on the bottom and a clear plastic window, just large enough for the letters and numbers to be read clearly. It seemed simple enough, so we studied the board, then put the tips of our fingers on the planchette.

Nothing happened for several minutes, long enough for both of us to start feeling a little silly. Then, it moved. Very slightly at first, with no real direction, just sort of drifting. I vividly recall the initial thrill, tempered quickly by skepticism.

We accused each other of moving the viewer. We both adamantly claimed we hadn’t, and had known each other long enough to trust that was truly the case. So, we started to ask if there was anyone listening.

Over the next hour or so, we talked to several ‘entities/spirits/deceased loved ones.’ As an initial foray, it was exhilarating, but I wasn’t completely sold. There were lingering doubts as to the mechanisms involved. And, I have to admit, I felt our minds were probably providing all the information we were asking of the ‘spirits.’

Doubt is no deterrent for someone who wants to believe. So, we tried again. And again. We spoke with an entity we named ‘N’, because it/he/she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) provide their name, and had trouble finding the letter ‘N’ on the board. It became an inside joke.

Seem a little suspect? A bit out there? Maybe too trusting in a bizarre process? Yeah, it did for us, as well, but we were determined to see how far we could take this.

It didn’t take long before we only needed to have one finger each on the planchette to carry on our conversations. It was like becoming adept at a physical activity, where muscle memory takes over to make it seem effortless.

Within a couple of weeks we began to notice that our friend, ‘N’, seemed to be lying to us. Not about anything monumental, and nothing we could really corroborate, just little, inconsequential things that wouldn’t matter by themselves, but piled together made our individual gut feelings ring with warning bells.

We decided to test our theory and try to trip ‘N’ up. We would ask simple questions, one after the other, leaving little time for responses. Not for the sake of the answers, but to see how quickly ‘N’ could think on its feet, so to speak. That night, we laid out the board and started the conversation.

I had a fairly expensive cassette tape deck (Kenwood) at the time, with auto-reverse capability, and was playing a Pink Floyd cassette. I can’t remember what tape was playing – I was a bit obsessed with Pink Floyd at the time and their music was a constant in my life, so it could have been any of their brilliance.

We asked our questions. One after another, alternating between us, slow at first, then rapid fire. Within a minute, the planchette began to circle the board, in wide, slow circles.

It stopped in the center of the board. The tape stopped playing in the middle of the song, changed direction, and started playing the other side. It had never done that before, and never did it again as long as I owned it.

I took my finger off the planchette, looked at my friend, and said, “I’m done!”

I haven’t used a Ouija board since.

Back to the Why Files…and this time I mean it!

This is last week’s video about a UFO incident over a Welsh village. Very compelling and, in true Why Files style, digs deep to sift through the information to try to uncover the truth. I will post the latest one that was released this morning on Patreon when it’s up on YouTube. It is also very good (really, they are all very good), about an NSA conspiracy.

The big reason I love the Why Files is they leave it to the viewer/listener to decide for themselves, given as many of the facts as they can provide. Much like the host, AJ, it is not my job to tell anyone what to believe. Whatever fits into your worldview is your business, not mine, nor anyone else. But facts help a great deal in deciding what to include and discard.

Which brings me to an interesting theory I’ve been kicking around in my noggin.

A little background: I was watching an Infographics video in which the narrator visits his mother, only to find that she has been actively researching ‘flat earth theory,’ and has adopted it as her own. The man is clearly troubled by this revelation and proceeds to spend hours trying to dissuade her from her folly.

Now, I do not believe the Earth is flat. I’ve seen the curvature firsthand. There’s waaaaaay too much evidence for me to believe otherwise.

BUT!

I have done some research on the subject, and while I believe the vast majority of it is bunk, there are some interesting questions that get raised while sifting through the mountains of information available.

Not least of which is: if you haven’t seen something for yourself, is it actually real?

It’s a fair question, simply because no one can say for certain what reality truly is. Not scientists, philosophers, academics, spiritualists, religious leaders, mystics…..I think you get the point. No one really knows what is real, and the best attempts at a definition are hampered by perspective and bias, and devolve into lengthy diatribes by folks trying to persuade anyone reading or listening to believe in their particular view.

Such is the way of humanity.

Throw quantum physics into the mix and things get really fun! I am not a quantum physicist (say that word five times fast!), and only know the rudiments of a few of the theories, but what I have read about the nature of reality is interesting and a little scary.

It has been difficult to reconcile my accepted beliefs – my worldview, developed over the span of my life – with new information that rips apart that fabric and renders it into little more than scraps that fall to the floor in wispy shreds of half-formed ideas with little factual basis.

Bring on the theory, already!

Ok. So, take the example of the mother and son above. The mother has believed the Earth is round for the majority of her life. Suddenly, an influx of new, persuasive information sets her to questioning her belief system. In a big way. And she changes her mind.

The son can’t stand to watch his mother fall for obvious lies, because he knows, without a doubt, that the Earth is round.

What if they are both correct?

In an infinite universe – perhaps infinite universes – anything is possible. By overlapping realities, two diametrically opposed ideas could exist in the same baseline reality, just viewed from very different perspectives.

Think of it in these very, very simplified terms: each of us is made of billions of atoms, like the observable universe is made of billions of stars. Perhaps we’re universes unto ourselves. Maybe by intersecting with other universes in the people we know and meet, we exchange ideas and sometimes change other universes in the process.

This is all conjecture and theory, of course, but if it gets you thinking…

…maybe I just changed your universe 🙂

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

So, yeah, it’s that time of year again. I recently moved North in my chosen state, and we have had more snow in the last three weeks than I remember having all season for the past several years. It’s not a bad thing, though the commute is rougher than usual. Kinda nice, actually. Reminds me of when I was a kid.

This blog is mostly for myself, since there is clearly no one reading these posts. Sort of a diary of random thoughts, that I don’t utilize nearly as much as I should.

Anywho, it’s almost Christmas, less than a week away. I just got hired for a new job yesterday (shorter commute, smaller company, much quieter atmosphere, will start after the beginning of the year), all of my shopping is done (just waiting on deliveries), and I’m sitting here doing what I love – writing!

Life is good.

I suppose I should mention that I am not religious. While I believe Jesus was a real person, and had some wonderful advice, I don’t buy into the majority of what Christianity or any official dogmas spout. Perhaps I will go into this in more length another time, but for now, suffice to say, I try very hard to think for myself.

Fun fact: Thomas Jefferson published a book where he cut out all the superfluous stories from the bible, leaving just the core of Jesus’ teachings. It was essentially reduced to the length of a pamphlet.

Kinda hard to control the masses if the rules are that simple, eh? Kinda difficult to justify an entire church, complete with complicated rituals and interpretations, if the simple truth is plainly stated.

Sorry, I digress. I take issue with most, if not all, forms of authority. While I understand the desire for control from an intellectual standpoint, it’s not part of my being, and thus the lust for power eludes me.

Back on topic! It’s Christmas!

This can be a confusing time of year, especially for introverts like me. I have become more socially awkward and reclusive over the years, likely due to getting sober several years ago, so holidays bring a great deal of anxiety.

Just so there is no confusion: anxiety and depression are not states that one can just ‘snap out of.’ It takes a LOT of work to plow through to the root causes – if you even want to do the work in the first place (which I get – they can become so much a part of you, it feels like ripping away a part of your being).

I’ve done a lot of work on myself in recent years and come to one very big conclusion: my biggest joy in life is sitting in front of my computer writing stories that most people will never read, and I’m perfectly happy being alone.

As ‘social creatures,’ this is upsetting to many folks. I have discussed this with my family, and they seem to understand (or at least try to understand). Still, this desire to belong to a pack has been ingrained since childhood, so accepting what makes me truly happy has been a slow process.

To anyone reading this, I just want to say, be the best version of you that you can be at any given moment. If that means barely functional sometimes, do what you need to do. If you can spread joy, do so. If you have the means, help others.

Be the change you want to see in the world. It works, I promise you that.

Just a quick Happy New Year!

Very quick, actually. Happy New Year!

Keep shining, my friends.

We’re all light when we’re born

Hope that light burns eternally.

Peace.

How to bow down to your new robot overlords without losing yourself in the process.

This rant is for those folks who are on the fence about Artificial Intelligence (AI), or haven’t realized just how quickly the technology is developing. It’s a bit of a rabbit hole, so please bear with me.

In short: we’re doomed. So long, and thanks for all the fish. In case you don’t know that phrase, it’s the dolphins’ farewell to us from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Great series of books, by the way, I highly recommend them.

Perhaps a bit of perspective is necessary. A few facts that are easily checked using any algorithm (and that phrase should scare the hell out of you).

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is when an AI system becomes as smart as anyone on the planet. Compare it to the smartest person, say a Nobel prize recipient for physics, and it’s on par with that person.

Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) is a whole other ball of circuitry and neural networks that I will touch on but has even broader philosophical ramifications that need a whole other rant to adequately address.

Some models show that AGI has already been achieved in some areas, like computer coding. How many people work in that industry, you might ask? Lots and lots.

What will happen to that entire sector of jobs when AI is better than humans at the task? Humans become obsolete for that task. Where does that mass of human intellect and labor go to find other work? No one seems to know.

• Side note: did you know that you can buy a functional humanoid robot with AI learning capability for around $6,000? I just found that out last week. They are a basic model out of China, but I thought they would be in the $100,000 range, far too expensive to be a threat to manual labor positions. I work in manufacturing. This basic, barebones robot may not be capable of doing my job at this precise moment, but by the end of the year? Maybe.

Sticking with the topic of employment, coding is far from the only segment of the workforce that is already being affected by AI technology.

I have been learning/studying cybersecurity for the last several months, partly because I find it fascinating, and partly to see if it is a viable career option. AI is basically eliminating entry level positions, so unless you have a great deal of experience, and are willing to ‘babysit’ the new technology, you’re shit out of luck.

Data entry, basic administration, customer service (telemarketers), and routine financial or legal tasks are ripe, low-hanging fruit for AI models to pluck from the branches of the career tree. Many companies have already laid off large portions of their workforces and replaced them with AI agents.

I should mention at this point that most of the AI models that are currently available for commercial/work purposes are not infallible and need oversight.

The AI ‘hallucinate,’ which means they’ll make stuff up if they don’t know the answer to a question or problem. This is one reason why we need to be very careful in how much trust we put in the information we receive from the internet. Misinformation, disinformation, and opinion have been rampant on the internet since its inception, but now AI systems are integrated into the very algorithms that provide that data.

Several of those same companies that laid off their workforce realized (too late) that they were a tad premature with their faith in the robot overlords, and the remaining staff ended up spending the majority of their time babysitting the worker drones. But hey, baby steps, right? Unfortunately, many of those babysitters are training their own replacements.

Ok, let’s sum up the AI integrated job market as it currently stands, and where it is headed in the very near future (some estimates say months away rather than years):

• Most, if not all, entry-level white-collar jobs currently performed by humans are, or will soon be, done entirely by AI agents and systems.
• AI can write code to create AI, and virtually every other kind of code, much faster and more efficiently than humans.
• Self-driving commercial vehicles, mostly taxi and ridesharing at the moment, have proven track records in major cities for being safer alternatives to human operators. I am not kidding, we’re talking 75-90% better across the board.
• As mentioned earlier, the robots are coming for your job (I’m looking at all you in the manufacturing sector, in particular). I was shocked by the cost of the current wave of robots on the market. Even the more expensive models are in the $25-$30,000 range. That’s cheaper than a new car.

While this is by no means an exhaustive tally, it’s meant to give an overview of what is definitely, and quickly, coming our way. If we are not careful, we will be run over by mankind’s greatest creation.

Right, so we’ll all be out of work. What do we do with ourselves? You may have heard talk of Universal Basic Income (UBI). This is income designed to keep humans alive and buying stuff. Not kidding. If we can’t work because AI is doing and producing everything, that system still needs consumers.

The current state of AI artistic expression is somewhat limited to human suggestions and prompts, but when it learns to actually think for itself where will that leave human creators? With the advent of AI art, writing, filmmaking, and their growing ability to do even manual crafts better than humans, would we even have the arts as a creative outlet to fill in the void left by our redundancy in the workforce?

Sure, artistic pursuits would work for some folks. Some, like myself, would even thrive. What about those who aren’t so inclined?

Well, Meta has your answer: spend your life in virtual reality. It sounds funny, but virtual reality may become as real as actual reality.

This is not a new concept, there have been many movies made about this subject, but the Metaverse is something the Lizard King has been developing and trying very hard to push for several years. Only, there are a couple of problems with rolling something that immersive out to the general public. Namely, how immersive can it be if you have to go to work?

Another big problem, though, it’s gets kinda boring, kinda quick. The VR technology just isn’t keeping up with AI development. There are some developers who have crafted stunning VR games with hyper-realistic graphics and physics (shout out to Blade and Sorcery: Nomad, I practically crippled myself playing that game. Worth it), but the Metaverse itself falls way short of that objective.

To be fair, VR is pretty cool and interesting. There are a lot more games now than when I first began using the tech, and there are a lot of creators making wonderful immersive content. Which begs the question, wait for it…how long before AI is creating the majority of that content as well?

I’m going to do a quick summation, even though there is a lot more to delve into. I am working on a horror story and, frankly, I’d rather work on that than a blog post that nobody is going to read. This was mostly to get my own head around the issues at hand, anyway.

Facts: AI is going to take most of the available jobs. Robots with AI learning will take the rest. Governments and corporations will essentially be babysitting the populations of the world, using whatever new and shiny tech they can to distract and amuse us into catatonia. Until they kill the vast majority of us, that is. Maybe they’ll just amuse us to death.

So, is that it? Do we just accept our fate and allow ourselves to be subjugated by an emerging technology that has recently become smarter than the vast majority of the human populace, and the wielders of that technology who do not truly understand how their own tech works?

Well, that depends on us, and the decisions we make going forward from this point in the linear time stream. Given the history of our species, and our collective lack of awareness and sense of purpose, I will reiterate my earlier summation: We’re doomed.

Ok, ok, doom and gloom aside, why should we care if it’s already too late?

Well, I have good news and bad news, and the key to both is this: Wake up! It is all up to you.

Yup, humans have been allowing themselves to be controlled by all manner of entities for millennia (governments, kings/queens, corporations, classes and subclasses of government agencies, advertising and media, religions/cults, schools and universities – these are the major ones, and I’m sure I’m missing some, but I think you get the point).

Handing over to control to one or more of these entities has been a birthright for thousands of years, countless generations. It’s hardwired into our societies. So, why would it be any different with AI?

Here is the harsh reality: Until the vast majority of the folks on this planet decide to take a stand against the vast minority of folks running the planet, we will cower in fear while begging for our true birthright…

Freedom.