On AI, Existential Threat, and the Collapse

Good evening ladies and gents. Hope you all had a good Sunday. I wanted to write here a bit more about AI, existential threat, and the Collapse. 

    First, AI is the latest buzzword of the last couple years and it's really taken the world by storm. I've used a ton of AI art generators to generate art mostly for fun but also here for the blog so its got some pictures to go along with these giant blocks of text. A lot of media and news sources want to keep constantly making the claim that AI is here to take your jobs, that we're training AIs to replace us, that using AI for art isn't real art, that the best thing for humanity is to just not even use AI for anything at all and sort of boycott it by just not using it at all ever.

    But I don't think not using AI is going to do anything whatsoever. In fact, if you're not using AI to augment your skills, abilities, or even for personal fun, research, and learning, then, my God, you are going to become behind in life and your other associates around you are going to surpass you in the occupational, intellectual, and the Culture itself. What I mean to say is that if you are boycotting AI, not using it and haven't used it yet, or just think its the worst thing in the world, you are going to be behind in the future economy and Culture. Think of it like a person who doesn't use a smartphone, they're definitely at a disadvantage, or someone who doesn't use the Internet, well, that person is like a fossil at this point. 

    Moving on, I don't think AI is going to replace us and I'm not sure if I believe that its really such a shocking blackbox that news and media outlets keep saying that it is. I think it is imperative for news and media outlets and people around you to say that AI is bad and you should never use it and that its going to replace you, and I think the reason why is that because if they can get you to be stuck up on AI, get you scared, get you excited, all of it generates more media and attention, which is then used to pump up AI and get more revenue and sales from AI, especially because now all the biggest stocks are all tech/AI companies, actually mostly AI, all the big money is all on AI now, trillions. 

    So keep in mind, if you think AI is bad and stupid and shouldn't be used for the sake of humanity, that's probably what they want you to think, especially because even bad news is sensational for these AI companies, and not only that, but sometimes you can see it as good news for people who love bad news, as this also generates media, attention, and revenue. 

    Second, the existential threat of AI. Is AI an existential threat to the United States, China, Europe, and the globe? I'm not a genius but I would say no, not at this moment in time. I think the global threat of extreme heat, fires/earthquakes/storms, fascism, obesity, cancer, dementia, nuclear disaster, war, contagious diseases, and drone warfare are much more of a existential threat to this world than anything AI could inflict upon us, at least that is how I feel on the subject, at least at this current juncture, but that could change if suddenly AI becomes some sort of electronic God and takes over every city and town in America, but now we have entered the realm of science fiction? Who here has read Alfred Bester? Or, if you're even older, who here has read The Machine Stops? 

    Third, we are now in the age of the Collapse here in America. You don't have to think and wait for the Collapse, it's already here folks. You aren't going to wake up one morning and all the news media outlets are going to tell you straight out, 'this is it, this is the Collapse,' rather, America has declined more and more after only very small intervals of time. Now, it's gotten to the point where America has fallen so fast that as a normal human being, you just don't have enough time, energy, cash, attention, or resources to even to keep up with the fact that everyday America is declining faster and faster. 

    Lastly, if I was a boomer I would say that throughout my life the decline of America was slow and took place over successive stages. However, I'm a 40 year old guy and I found out for myself that the decline of America happened very fast, its almost as if it happened in the blink of an eye. 

    It's like the Romans when they had their decline. The Romans were so busy living luxurious lives, having orgies, and watching the fighters get eaten by lions at the coliseum, they were so busy doing that, that they didn't have time to realize that their entire civilization had fallen. 

    Which brings me to America. America is sort of like a baby Rome, short of the years required to truly be a longstanding civilization, but has had the military strength to subdue all her foes and take over through the sword of imperialism. Not bad for only 250 years, eh? 

    In conclusion, and I'll end it like this. I think most Americans just don't have the wherewithal to do anything to stop this and some of them might not even care and yet even some more know this and are using it to their advantage to scheme, loot, rob, disenfranchise, and take over things to keep control and turn things to their advantage at other peoples' detriment [Trump in a nutshell]. 

    There will always be bad actors but given these terrible circumstances of a failed state, a failed government, the cataclysmic collapse of the American Empire, that not only will there winners and losers but there will be more criminals and bad actors of any and all sorts, infinite in their form. 

    I'll end it like this, I might be the only person you read who's my age who will tell you this like this, other people won't be able to articulate it in quite the same way, and they don't have the free time to really talk about it, write about it, or articulate it. Leisure is the hobby of the intellectual class. 

Capacity for Happiness

Today was wonderful.

I got eight hours of sleep. I played video games. I played guitar. I got to read a great book. And although I worked till one in the morning in a retail gig, it was still pretty damn good. 

What does it take to be happy? Why am I so happy? 

Well, the answer is simple. Although difficult to explain. The answer is that I have the capacity for happiness. No matter what happens to me my capacity for happiness is so abundant, that I'm probably the happiest person out of all my friends, coworkers, and casual acquaintances. I'm actually almost like a saint. A philosopher. A rock and roll guitar player that dabbles in jazz. Perhaps in another life I would've joined the priesthood and spread the Gospel of Christ.   

What's their problem, you ask? Well, they simply lack the capacity for happiness. One guy is upset because he's not doing the career path he wants in life. One is upset because he's depressed. One is upset because he thinks he can only do one job in his entire life. Coworkers are upset because they think the hum drum life of retail will never improve. 

So what do they do? They find solace in escapism. We all do, at least to a certain degree. Especially during COVID. So they go out on vacations and live like a bourgeois for a while. They buy fancy dinners. They take lots of drugs and drink lots of alcohol. They drive their cars fast. They become connoisseurs of consumerism and continuously need to buy more and more things. They fuck all the time. But it doesn't sustain them. They're still not happy. Why?

Simply because they lack the capacity for happiness. Their problem is existential. Meaning that they don't yet know that they lack the capacity for happiness. Some of them will never know. And that's where the true tragedy lies. Thus spoke Orlando Figueroa.

So yeah, today was a good day...

The Plague

The Plague (French: La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947. It's about the plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. It raises questions about destiny and the human condition. Throughout the novel, there are existentialist ideas that reverberate. The novel is said to be based on a cholera epidemic that killed many people in Oran back in 1849 but the novel is set in the 1940s. Likewise, it is based on real plague outbreaks that really happened in Oran back in the 1900s, but these outbreaks were very small compared to the devastation seen in this novel, which is apocalyptic, a word seen in today's NYTimes headline. 

Camus objected to the book being considered an existentialist classic yet it has that sort of tone. It is also seen as an allegorical treatment of the French resistance to Nazi occupation in World War II. Lastly, the novel brings up the philosophical notion of the Absurd, "the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent meaning and value in life, and the human inability to find any in meaningless, purposeless, or chaotic and irrational universe. 

Let's start at the beginning. This is my first Camus novel although I have heard of The Stranger, which was recommended to me by my father and my friend, a master's degree student from CSUN. The Stranger and The Plague are terrific novels but for entirely different reasons which we won't go into here. I went to the local library book sale initially looking for The Stranger, because I'd seen it multiple times at other book sales, only to find they didn't have it this particular time, but they had The Plague, so that's what institutes my introduction to Camus. 

The story told therein isn't complicated nor long. On the contrary, this is a very simple story, but with deep meanings and notions. There are only a handful of true actions. But again, deep meanings within them.

The story is told from a narrator's point of view. We don't know who the narrator is until the end of the book, where we learn that the narrator is the doctor himself, who had been treating all the victims of the city, possibly exposing himself to the plague, his friends/associates who are workers of the city, helping him in fighting the plague. The fact that the narrator is nameless/faceless until the very end is a great literary device used in some other novels that I've read, especially in science fiction of the 50s and 60s. It's quite an imaginative plot device because the reader is always in a sort of suspense. Who is really telling the story? Well, you don't know until you find out. You don't find out until you keep reading. It's not difficult to guess that it was the doctor but it's rewarding to find out that it's him. Why? Because the doctor has such a personal relationship with the town, the citizens, his friends, the workers, the plague itself. His point of view is important to the telling and conclusion of the story. Even if he isn't the only character that the novel focuses on. Rather, there are a couple of characters in the novel. Although none as important as the doctor because he's the narrator. 

Then, the plague itself. The plague is the worst disease known in the history of mankind. Camus displays fantastic writing ability in the way he describes the symptoms, the victims, the deaths, the burnings, the burials, the quarantined, the panic buying, the lockdown of the city. This is where I get to make a comparison between this novel and what's going on today. 

Today we have the coronavirus having gone viral across the world, and today 13 people died in N.Y.C, but overall something like 1,000 people have died from coronavirus in America. Twenty-six states are on quarantine/lockdowns. Most people are out of jobs or working at home, or they might be like me, they're grocery store workers [essential workers like healthcare workers] on the front lines, battling an invisible enemy, with nothing but gloves and a mask, if they're lucky enough to have PPE [personal protective equipment]. Life today is somewhat like life in Camus' novel. The absurd has already happened: People are panic buying hundreds of rolls of toilet paper and canned goods. Like the novel, people have made a fortune off selling items in a black market sort of fashion, selling toilet paper, hand sanitizer, even foods. Existentialism is more popular amongst my more literary and/or more articulate friends. There's a definite sort of dread, confusion, disorientation, in today's climate. The individual has come apart from the whole, not just objectively, but literally. We literally have been ordered by local, state, and federal governments to practice 'social distancing,' a 2020 buzzword that states we shouldn't gather in groups or get too close to others because we could spread the coronavirus to each other more easily that way. And this is just the beginning! 

So it's easy to see how a novel like The Plague holds such important intrinsic, historical, philosophical, and emotive value because what happened in the novel happens in real life so to speak. This novel is so realistic and spot-on, in some ways it's absolutely terrifying and ultimately unforgettable. A lot of book reviewers like to say this a lot but I mean this; this is one of the greatest novels I've ever read, will read, or will ever want to read again. 

Lastly, this novel portrays everything that a pandemic will and should. The horror, the death, the spreading of the disease, the removal of the bodies, the burning of the bodies [in some cases], the funerals, the lovers being split apart, the non-discrimination of the disease killing everybody including men, women, and children, the human compassion and support especially from doctors, healthcare workers, city officials, police, volunteer workgroups, the love, emotion, isolation, the absurd, the existential angst, it's all there really. What's really comforting to see is that even having gone through the plague this fictional tale has one thing that humanity will always need, crave: hope. For if there is one reason why we should get up out of bed in the morning it's because of hope. That's why this is such an important, great novel.

Start me up

Lately, I've been blogging about ideas I've had recently. About ideas, life, philosophy, and such. Here's another one in that same discourse. We all have long periods where we are thriving and excelling at everything we do in life. And then finally it hits you. You run into a brick wall. What do you do? Here's what I think. 

I've been on a climatic high ever since the end of last year. I've really changed my outlook, my way of thinking, philosophy, and in a lot of ways I've become a better and more evolved individual. I'm pretty damn happy with myself. But then that brick wall enters your path, where do you go next? The brick wall hit me today when I was at work when I suddenly realized that I can't possibly keep going at the rate I'm going at my retail job. Working 430pm-1am 5 days a week. It can't possibly last. Either I must get a job that isn't as physical or just quit entirely. Then it hit me. What am I going to do? [existential heavy breathing] 

The easy answer is that I'm probably just overworked and need a week off [which I, unfortunately, can't afford to do]. Or that I just need to relax more and take a breather, play more guitar and keyboard [music saves the soul]. However, it is meaningful to actually think about it in a more serious format. Otherwise why bring it up?

Keep in mind that this question came out of the feeling that I just don't have it in me. Too tired to do the physical retail stuff anymore. Why is that? I was just tired. But was I really? Sometimes you have to question everything. Even yourself. 

This led me to a conversation I had with a friend of mine yesterday. I was walking somewhere and saw a friend and he gave me his philosophy on work and life. 

"It doesn't matter how many hours you work. You can work very little hours but as long as you get the money you need to pay for rent/housing/food, that's all that matters. Enjoy your life as much as possible."  

Obviously, this is coming from a guy who is unemployed so at the time I was skeptical. But the more I thought about it, the more I put credence into it. This goes back to my predicament. What do I do? 

Enjoy life, keep working, but don't work so hard, don't push yourself, don't break your back for lowly retail store directors. In the end, maybe being a socialist isn't so bad. [lol] Hell, even Yang's universal basic income is looking fantastic nowadays to me.

I don't know for sure but I believe the idea of working is changing in the postmodern technological age. It might be that people who hardly work because they're already rich, or people that are businessmen who only work sometimes during the week, it might be that they are the culprits, promoting the destruction of the middle class, forcing them into a life of work and servitude, when those people could enjoy more time with their significant other, friends, family, or in self reflection. Is it us versus them? Or is that what the world wants us to believe? As that one song from Broadway goes, "Is that all there is?"  

Start me up. 

The modern proletariat refuses to die.

Existential millennial crisis

This funny term came to my mind today when I was thinking about all of my friends. Existential millennial crisis. My friends are all in their mid to late 20's and life could be better for all of us. That being said, all of them seem to think that there's more to life, and "I want it. I want more. I want more out of this life. And I'm going to get it. Here's how." And then they proceed to tell me all these plans and solutions to said problem: How do I stay happy and get more out of life? 

There are no easy solutions to this. Its something I struggle with everyday. Part of it is a huge mental leap in positivity that cannot be broken by anything or anyone. This can be impossible for some people who aren't tough enough. You just have to have a tough mental attitude. But the answer for most of them seems to be this: "I'm stuck in a rut in LA. I have to get out of here and have a fresh start somewhere else." 

To that I say that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. If you can't make it in LA and be happy what makes you think anywhere else would make you happier? LA and the Valley is a very happy place with all kinds of people doing all manners of occupations. Living in California has been the happiest years in my life. Moving away isn't going to solve all their problems. Having to find a new job might be rough. Leaving your friends and family will be even tougher. 

I would say it would be better to solve the problem before you jump ship. Fight or flight isn't always the best response, especially when it comes to a millennial existential crisis. This seems to be a huge problem for all my friends right now. I actually feel for them because I don't seem to have these kinds of issues or plans, to run away and start anew. 

Two other friends are in a bad spot as well. One of them is getting kicked out by his landlord by the end of the month and instead of finding room mates right away he's sitting around with his thumb up his ass. He's trusting in God and not worrying about it, but in reality this is something he should be worried about and working on to solve. 

Another friend had the option to live with his father but doing so would mean that he wouldn't be able to play computer games 12 hours a day (he's a gaming addict, a very good gamer). I told him he should live with his dad and stop gaming so much, develop other hobbies such as reading (always my advice to all my friends), but in the end he chose the option where he could play games 12 hours a day. He now lives in a small apartment and shares a room with a 45 year-old man. Sounds just great right? No. In reality he's not feeling the situation, and he probably realized that he made a bad decision. Oh well. That's life. 

I've been thinking about all of this stuff and then thought about my own life. Of course, I'm not making a million dollars nor do I have a girl friend but there's more to life than that, and that's happiness. The one thing I have that they don't is that I'm happy where I'm at in life. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to try to do better, get a better job, perhaps go back to school, find a girl friend, etc. It means that I'm not going to run away from my problems related to my current situation. Instead, I'm going to tough it out and fix things here, where I can think clearly about my state.

You have to figure out your problems and work to fix them without running. Life is a complex shismatrix, it takes a lot of time and energy to figure out how to read between the lines. We live in the best state in the country, with the best weather, with more jobs than most states. Life is good here in the Valley, and I like it here. If you aren't happy and can't be satisfied here then you won't be satisfied anywhere. 

You might think I'm overthinking all of this but actually all this dialogue is helping me to process my friends' emotions as well as my own. Life is tough. Stick with it, don't give up. Strive for better. Persevere. But do it effectively. Don't run, don't go off on your own into the wild blue nether. You might not be as happy as you once were.