The Jackpot Blog

In his horrifying and Clark Ashton Smith-creepy Ubik, 1 Philip K. Dick (PKD) invents or at least discovers the chatbot. The protagonist is Joe Chip; G. G. Ashwood is a business associate, accompanied by a potential employee Chip has agreed to interview. The AI, the door, cannot, by definition, be a protagonist, but I have helpfully underlined its tokenized outputs:

Man on the moon:

(1) “Kudlow: Mamdani a ‘throwback to Stalin’ ”

(2) “The Democrats Are Determined Not to Learn From Their Failure”

(3) “A mathematical proof that AI will destroy the economy”

4) Ebola and airborne transmission.

Dad Joke of the Day: Dogs can’t operate MRI machines.

• Learnings.
• Clout.
• Influencer.

I was reading Frank Herbert’s shockingly underrated The Dosadi Experiment on a flight the other day, and marked this passage for future reference. Herbert’s world-building is complex, but suffice to say that McKie, of the Bureau of Sabotage, is deposing Aritch, an elite Gowachin (the frog people), as his client under Gowachin Law. The Gowachin control an entire prison planet, Dosadi, populated by both human and Gowachin, test subjects all.

Lambert here: Warehousing people in a literal warehouse. “Congregate settings” like jails, homeless shelters, and nursing homes are all prey to communicable diseases — Covid, for example. I wonder if the mercs at GEO Group, which hopes to run the facility in Social Circle, have given consideration to how their ventilation system could mitigate — or intensify — the spread of airborne pathogens. I’m guessing no.

I thought I was an insomniac until I started listening to podcasts.

Lambert here: I’m not accustomed to being hopeful about the climate. But perhaps I’m wrong? Readers, what’s happening where you are?

“Stress impairs your brain’s ability to link memories — dampening insight” [Nature]:

(1) “The AI Bubble”

(2) “F.B.I. Arrests C.I.A. Official With $40 Million in Gold Bars in His Home”

(3) “They just formed the biggest tech worker union in the US. They plan to rein in AI and curb layoffs”

4) “Democrats turn on Bidens’ ‘nonsense’ ahead of midterms as Jill and Hunter steal the spotlight while minority party desperately tries to turn page”