Originally Posted by Sunset Poet
Originally Posted by Michael Zaneski
We're good, Marty.
Part of my optimism comes from knowing there's "no stopping progress" without a form of tyranny, or amendng The Constitution, or both.

Or the collapse of an economic system that glues everything together. The mismanagement of the US treasury started with W and it has not played all the way out yet. Obama was a fairly level headed steward but it stagnated under him. Trump + covid made it a runaway train with the temporary illusion that stability had been achieved. And now Biden is George III and the debt is 32 trillion. Things wouldnt be any worse if we picked a random 8 year old for president.



Originally Posted by Michael Zaneski
Part of my optimism comes from knowing there's "no stopping progress" without a form of tyranny, or amendng The Constitution, or both. IOW, part of my optimism is also just "wishful thinking" if I am honest, cuz I don't want to be in that head space that you seem to inhabit: fearing that bad stuff is going to happen and there's nothing anyone can do about it, if I am reading you correctly. wink

Mike, there is my head space and there is the reality that would go on if I had never been born. Things are as they are.
We agree that trend line of civilization's progress is an ascension. But it pauses now and then. Had the Roman Empire not devolved into feudalism and there not been a pause to the renaissance, there might have been a man on the moon centuries ago.

I don't want the last few years of my life to be lived out in a broken down world, but the reality is that there are pieces in place making that a possibility. And the nations possessing the most destructive military machines to ever exist have entered a new era of tension between them.
I hope your optimism prevails. I' m wary.

It's important to identify problems correctly to fix them. Someone can believe that a pit bull is actually a pony, but that will end poorly if he or she tries to actually mount and ride it.

I agree, and I hope for all our sakes solutions to these problems can come; but keep in mind that we're not talking about "singing AI" anymore, which is a far less dangerous thing than other forms of AI.

Don't forget, though, that even as you think "there is my head space and there is the reality that would go on if I had never been born" --that all your perceptions come from various forms of filtering that go on inside you. No one has a completely objective grasp on "reality" per se, just perceptions of it, though you may indeed have a better grasp on it than most.

I should probably just stick to what I know, LOL.

Last edited by Michael Zaneski; 03/22/23 06:18 PM.
Fate doesn't hang on a wrong or right choice
Fortune depends on the tone of your voice

-The Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon)
from the song "Songs of Love"
from the album "Casanova" (1996)