Category Archives: Big Tech Big Lie or Promise?
The Excruciating 21st Century
You can say something is excruciatingly funny or that a comedy is excruciating. “But the root sense, all pain, is: ‘to crucify.” The Lain ex functions as an intensive. Cruciare ‘to crucify’ has the generalized sense to torture. That’s from … Continue reading
“It’s 2024. Do you know (or care) from whom your kid’s are getting their tech?”
This is a play on the Public Service Announcement I heard from time to time growing up in the in the later 60s and mid-70s. “It’s 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?” You’re going to think this … Continue reading
Resisting Artificial Intelligence
The above is the title of Harper’s July 2024 issue. I sure don’t hear many raising this hue and cry. According to Benjamín Labatut’s essay “The God’s of Logic – Before and after artificial intelligence”, we ought to be listening to Geoffrey … Continue reading
Give us 18 Minutes, we’ll give you the world
The Satellite News Network (SNC) debuted in 1982 with this slogan. It would be more accurate to say that if you give them 18 minutes they will give you their world, the world as they see it, believe it, edit … Continue reading
Just a Tool, Two
In my never ending quest, perhaps Quixotic, to expose the seedy underbelly of all things techie, I offer “Just a Tool, Two” or “2.0” for you Big Tech enthusiasts. The scene in the 1980’s movie is this: the hero has … Continue reading
Social Media – The Unrest of the Younger Generation
In a 1936 essay entitled “The Literary Twenties – The Younger Generation” a New York literary critic, Carl Van Doren, looks back at the generation of the 1920’s which he was on the cusp of. Among his pearls of wisdom … Continue reading
Reportage or Fearmongering?
I was going to title this “Fake News and Battle of the Bulge” in homage to St. Merv. Merv was with the 101st Airborne at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. “Band of Brothers” is his story. We were … Continue reading
The Trolley Problem, FSD Mode, & ATOO
The trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics in which in a fictional scenario an onlooker has the choice to save 5 people in danger of being hit by a trolley, by diverting the trolley to kill just 1 person. … Continue reading