I had a bizarre dream last night where I was flying some mission, I guess for the space force of all things? My wingman and I crash landed and woke up in an alternate 2025. It was very different. Tech is nowhere as advanced. There were barely any smart phones and no LLMs. The world was much simpler and corporations weren’t nearly as powerful. Apparently in this reality, Al Gore beat GW bush in 2000. His response to 9/11 was very different. There was no Middle East war. Instead the US became extremely isolationist. We stopped getting things from outside the country. For better or worse, America became almost entirely self-sufficient. Electric cars actually became a thing very quickly. There was good stuff. Things like Facebook got wrecked by anti trust lawsuits. Even Google was broken up. The big tech companies never took over our world the way they did. 

Unfortunately, Sabrina Carpenter never became the success she is now. After her Disney contract ran out, and Disney went out of business in this world by the way, she became a B-list country singer. Taylor did just fine, but Sabrina dyed her hair brunette and played any gig she could get. And of course I ran into her… and that’s all I thought about while I snoozed, this alternate Sabrina. Basically the same just very accessible. But she’s not the real one. So why bother fantasizing? 

Also, commercials as we know them got banned… apparently political ads in particular got out of control and strict limits were put on what you could say in an advertisement. Something that may be worth discussing at some point, too.

But that alternate reality is so very interesting. I can’t say that it’s better. Covid was a lot worse. A lot of tech we have now didn’t exist. My wingman and I stood out. Why the hell I was in the space force, I have no clue. But it makes sense my brain would imagine such what if scenarios. I think I’d prefer that world in many ways.

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Watching KC’s best video in a long time. She’s pointed out something I’ve been saying to Emily for awhile. Technology is great, but solutionism, the idea that tech can solve any problem, and any new problems that arise from the use of technology we can solve with more technology. At the end of the day, we don’t deal with the systemic problems, but rather bury them when our society becomes led by technological determinism. It’s also the comment that’s been haunting her for months that gives me some pause: someone said that the whole concept of moving fast and breaking things just leaves things broken. A lot of things are broken right now. 

I said on the video: “This is definitely a discussion that needs to be had. Tech is great and it’s fine to be optimistic about it, as I still am. But it’s the very solutionism and technological determinism that are holding humanity back from making good decisions on how developing technologies can actually benefit humanity. There are so many systemic problems within our society, especially at a governmental level, that go back many years. We need decision makers at high levels that understand the realities that these big tech companies are just like any other consumer business, and they have managed to assetize their user’s time and attention. It is good to remember that there are plenty of people that remain outside of the influence of ChatGPT and the darker sides of social media. And I’m very glad you’re back having discussions like this!” 

That’s the first comment I’ve left in a long time. But this video deserves it. 

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It’s good to feel needed by someone when they need that comfort to fill a suddenly empty space. I’ve had a lot of blank spaces in my life. I’ve tried to fill them with characters I’ve met in books and shows and films, then twist them around and remake them in my mind’s eye as my own, simulacrums I can mutate and evolve as I need them to fill some role to comfort me or fulfill some emotional or psychological need.

… We’re [made up of] just chemical reactions and we borrow the language of our parents and pretend to make it our own as we steal everyone else’s ideas and call ourselves clever.

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I’m constantly seeking better language to define and expand on my own disillusionment with how education and intellectual life, especially in Autodidactic realms, could be improved substantially… How can we seek a better language with which to explore more complex and foundational ideas?

I do recall wanting to write an essay about the financialization of hobbies, and the concept of “perverse incentives” as I called it. But even at the time, I thought it might be too lightweight and overgeneralized to pursue. But if I could tie together the “perverse incentives” with a more birds-eye view of hobby assetization, I think that could be a pretty good essay. Would it be more heavy or midweight though?

I’ve been tackling the topic of the Psychology of Risk at some length; specifically, how does it seem to make people turn into “cartoonish bullies” when really it’s the nature of high-risk financial markets and the high-stakes gambling that’s become so prevalent in the 21st century world that turns people into worse versions of themselves.