Al Gore Vs. Algorithms is Off-Beat with The Bill of Rights

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Once the algorithms get you to the bottom of the rabbit hole you may find yourself in a Bespoke Reality. I am placing a bet tomorrow that the term will be a contender for the Word of the Year, 2024.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Spinning round and round glued to a spoke the rest of the wheel enveloped in smoke.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Unspoken smoke.

“Live on in your Dreamland where animals die a painless and stress free death with their friends and relatives gathered around them to see them off to The Happy Hunting Ground. And not in pain from disease and/or while a predator or predator(s) eat them alive as they are dying.”

I can’t put the peanut of pain in a better refrain. That there aesthetic is dang near insane.

[UnseenParticipant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

But it’s many times more efficient for humans to get their food directly from plants, than turn it into cows and chickens and get it that way.  So, plant food uses proportionately a lot less land.

Cattle live on monocultures of grass.  They don’t share their habitat with other species of animals.

I was tempted to look for a humorous meme in reply. Here, instead, is a fact-based rejoinder.

You dislike monoculture when it comes to cattle and yet the entire plant agriculture industry is monocultural, isn’t it? When you drive through the plant agriculture farmland, you see fields of just one species, just one variety of said species, don’t you?

Plant agriculture drives out many natural species like
field mice, voles, gophers, rabbits, deer, elk, coyotes, wolves, all of which can share their environment with cattle. Untold numbers of these creatures are killed and their nests are destroyed when fields are tilled to make room for plant crops.

Here in America’s west, cattle ranching isn’t done on monocultural farms where cattle are fed monocultured grass. Instead, they graze on open prairie land eating whatever plantlife exists there. Often, it is public land given over to cattle ranching.

There, wild birds also live, ranging from tiny songbirds like finches to blackbirds, meadowlarks, grouses, wild turkeys, and pheasants, along with their predator birds like hawks, owls, eagles, and vultures.

Lizards and snakes can be found there as well, and play a role in insect and small mammal control. Amphibians like frogs and toads can also be found in cattle country and help control insect populations as well.

Bees and other pollinators are essential for plant reproduction and can benefit from the diverse plant communities found in cattle country.

If cattle country is turned into plant production, you’ll have socia consquences.

The transition away from animal agriculture could cause significant job losses in industries related to animal production, processing, and distribution. This includes farmers, ranchers, meat processors, truck drivers, and many others.

There will be economic disruptions as well. The shift in production could also disrupt rural economies, particularly in areas heavily reliant on animal agriculture. This could lead to decreased property values, reduced tax revenue, and other challenges that would certainly lead to increased drug use an increase in suicide rates.

Beyond that, at least in the short term, plant-based alternatives may be more expensive than animal products, potentially leading to increased food insecurity for low-income individuals and families.

Increased demand for land for plant-based food production could compete with other land uses, such as biodiversity conservation and indigenous land rights as well as increased demands on the water supply.

Certain crops, like legumes and vegetables, can be more water-intensive than animal feed crops, potentially leading to water stress and depletion in regions with limited water resources.

Plant fertilizers and pesticides are poisons and pollutants that can contaminate water sources and harm aquatic ecosystems. In arid and semi-arid regions, intensive plant agriculture can lead to salinization of soil and water resources, reducing their long-term productivity.

There are more problems—as if I haven’t outlined enough already—which I may go into further later. However, I’m running out of time and energy and am probably exhausting your attention span as well.

Perhaps in future posts.

Hopefully I’ve at least hinted that switching to a plant-based diet isn’t the “solution” many would like it to be.

[_Robert_Participant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Once the algorithms get you to the bottom of the rabbit hole you may find yourself in a Bespoke Reality. I am placing a bet tomorrow that the term will be a contender for the Word of the Year, 2024.

I remember a time when people were connected in the same reality. Even FM radio and album rock was a uniting force. People would discuss the latest episode of a TV series at the bus stop. You could watch a movie or read a book and relate to characters whose daily lives seemed much the same as yours. TV shows like “All In the Family” were not afraid of offending, and thus were truthful social commentary.

Yep, now we seem to be living in (often) extreme versions of our own bespoke realities that supply you only with narrow, positive feedback.

[UnseenParticipant]

@ Reg and Robert

“The Internet will bring us all together” is up there with “Computers will do away paper.”

Anyone still cheerleading for AI or minimizing its potential negative impacts should be reminded of the unintended/unanticipated consequences of technology.

 

[_Robert_Participant]

Unseen wrote:

@ Reg and Robert “The Internet will bring us all together” is up there with “Computers will do away paper.” Anyone still cheerleading for AI or minimizing its potential negative impacts should be reminded of the unintended/unanticipated consequences of technology.

In the late 80s there was conservative radio and TV, but the few that were all into that stuff were shunned as being old crabs not worth arguing with.

[unapologeticParticipant]

(deleted) (I was repeating some of what unseen said about ranching.) (he said it better than I did.)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by  unapologetic.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Once the algorithms get you to the bottom of the rabbit hole you may find yourself in a Bespoke Reality. I am placing a bet tomorrow that the term will be a contender for the Word of the Year, 2024.

Buf t’wasn’t it always thus, before there were such things as AI, computers, the Internet, or even Babbage Differential Engines?

Really, when you think about it, wasn’t the Creation account in Genesis the Original, Literally, Bespoke Reality?

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

I remember a time when people were connected in the same reality.

Since when was this?

Bubbles still existed. They were just configured differently.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

I might add, in those days, there were only 3 TV channels from ABC, CBS, and NBC, an independent station or two, a Public Broadcasting station (I call it “Welfare TV,”) and all caught by rabbit ear antennae that needed aluminum foil and proper positioning to get a signal.

Radio was AM or FM and with news mostly owned by a the Big Three mentioned above. Shortwave and Ham radio was the only global electronic mediium.

And in the midst of all this, Atheist and Secularist voices were few and far between, maybe Madalyn Murray O’Hair in a Supreme Court case or interviewed on Donahue. Later when cable became the medium, there were American Atheist and The Atheist Experience programs on community access channels, a great antidote to Doctor Gene Scott and Calypso Louie Farrakhan.

But now, in the Information Age, there are endless ways for people to access information and entertainment on Atheism, Secularism, and any other philosophical worldview. It can be either a bubble or it can be a way to explore new ideas as well, and judging from the growing number of “Jones,” more are exploring and discovering new ways of thinking.

In the end, as Steward Brand put it: “What it is, is up to us.”

[_Robert_Participant]

Nah, IQ’s have been falling for the first time in history, starting around 2,000. People don’t access information; they are force-fed garbage data by algorithms and are getting dumber by the year. As an engineering boss, I couldn’t believe the lack of basic knowledge exhibited by the fresh-outs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2023/03/23/american-iq-test-scores-show-recent-declines-according-to-new-study/?sh=f886bb4559ff

https://www.sciencenorway.no/health-intelligence-iq/our-iq-is-steadily-declining/2180595#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20Flynn,points%20in%20the%20year%202000.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

Now you’re goal-post shifting from cultural/ideological bubbles to IQ and learning.

IQs can vary within the same individual over time. Mine scored lower in High School than it was in either Elementary School or College. (I suspect is is ghe case with a lot of High Schoolers. What else could explain Porky’s, Spring Break, Meatballs, Fast Times at Ridgemont High ans all the other Eighties Teenage Fuck Flicks?) 🤪😁

And algorithms can’t explain compulsory schools where you can’t take your business elsewhere or teacher’s unions and tenure keeping incompetants from being fired or Oppression Studies being injected tlinto Math or all the other tangential diversions that formal education uses to stop actual learning.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I did a supervised IQ test in 1990 and did another one in 2020 with the same organization. I scored one extra point the second time but took about 10 minutes longer to complete it.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

Your articles presented not even a hypothesis of what caused the lower IQ that even mentioned algorithms once. Also the second article said that IQ is a not an objective measure like meters or liters and the top Norwegian expert on IQ Jon Martin Sundet said that lower IQs didn’t mean lower intelligence and asked “Does it really matter?”

Start again.

[Author]

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