Free Republic

From the academic who warns of a robot uprising to the workers worried for their future – is it time we started paying attention to the tech sceptics? Eliezer Yudkowsky, a 44-year-old academic wearing a grey polo shirt, rocks slowly on his office chair and explains with real patience – taking things slowly for a novice like me – that every single person we know and love will soon be dead. They will be murdered by rebellious self-aware machines. “The difficulty is, people do not realise,” Yudkowsky says mildly, maybe sounding just a bit frustrated, as if irritated by a...

In the real-world, the costs are all we know for sure and profits remain elusive and contingent.No one knows how the flood of AI products will play out, but we do know it's unleashed a corporate frenzy to "get our own AI up and running." Corporate fads are one of the least discussed but most obvious dynamics in the economy. Corporations follow fads as avidly as any other heedless consumer, rushing headlong into whatever everyone else is doing.Globalization is a recent example. Back in the early 2000s, I sat next to corporate employees on flights to China and other Asian...

SAO PAULO (CNS) — A Catholic prelature in Brazil's Amazon has decreed that its parishes will not accept donations from any person or company that displaces minorities or damages the earth. Bishop José Ionilton Lisboa de Oliveira of Itacoatiara has prohibited parishes, pastoral communities, groups and movements linked to the prelature -- similar to a diocese — from receiving financial resources from those he says "damage the Amazon." "We decree, for an indefinite period, that in parishes, communities, pastorals, groups and movements of the Prelature of Itacoatiara, we will not receive financial resources, in currency or other goods, from politicians,...

A 1972 MIT study predicted that rapid economic growth would lead to societal collapse in the mid 21st century. A new paper shows we're unfortunately right on schedule.A remarkable new study by a director at one of the largest accounting firms in the world has found that a famous, decades-old warning from MIT about the risk of industrial civilization collapsing appears to be accurate based on new empirical data. As the world looks forward to a rebound in economic growth following the devastation wrought by the pandemic, the research raises urgent questions about the risks of attempting to simply return...

I am thinking of getting a cell phone to replace my beloved ENV3. What is the Best OS for Privacy, Connectivity and Reliability? Most memory? My emails are currently with time Warner with accounts that go back 30 years. I run two businesses out of email and phone currently, how do I make the switch? I am not a fan of clouds. What do you recommend? Who would I get to set it up?

Could you give up Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn for 24 hours? How about for an entire week? A year, anyone?One woman in Washington, D.C., with hundreds of Facebook friends, more than 4,000 Twitter followers and more than 500 LinkedIn connections, is giving up social media for 365 days.After deleting those apps for 30 days last September, Darla Bunting said that the mini-digital detox wasn't enough."I went right back to my old habits," the education advocate told ABC News. "I fell victim to posting and scrolling all the time. I didn't unplug enough to develop new habits."By living in a...

Hillary doesn’t like (or understand) Uber, the new low-priced taxi service that is flourishing all over the world. Nor does she like (or understand) Airbnb, the international online apartment and room rental company that says it generated $1.15 billion in economic activity in New York City in 2014, supporting 10,580 jobs. Why is Hillary opposed to them? Because the big unions hate the competition they’ve created. And Hillary desperately wants the AFL-CIO’s endorsement for president. She’s racing to try and beat Bernie Sanders for their backing. So, attacking the new-economy companies so hated by the unions is one way to...

California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory vaccines,” he said. “This corporate fascist must be stopped.” He went on to say the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is corrupt because they “can’t solve a problem they helped start.” Carrey, who lives in Los Angeles, said he does not oppose vaccines, but is rather “anti-neurotoxin.” He believes vaccines should be free of chemicals and certain compounds, such as mercury and thimerosal. “All we are saying is, 'Take the neurotoxins out of the vaccines.' Make them toxin free. History will show that that...

This is a Call to Action for a Non-Hierarchical Occupation of Monsanto Everywhere Whether you like it or not, chances are Monsanto contaminated the food you ate today with chemicals and unlabeled GMOs. Monsanto controls much of the world's food supply at the expense of food democracy worldwide. This site is dedicated to empowering citizens of the world to take action against Monsanto & it's enablers like the FDA, USDA, EPA, GMA, BIO, and the processed food companies that use Monsanto's products. We urge you to help organize and attend the closest March Against Monsanto taking place on Saturday, May...

An Australian woman who was a strong supporter of home births has died tragically, delivering her own baby daughter at home. Caroline Lovell, 36, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after giving birth but could not be saved. Her daughter Zahra was delivered healthily.

Jen and Keith Gorney have chosen to serve their children raw milk from a local farmer. They've also chosen to send two of their kids to an Eden Prairie daycare for half day sessions. They didn't realize those choices would work against each other. The Gorneys learned that USDA guidelines require centers that serve meals to serve pasteurized milk with those meals. The Gorneys wanted to bring water to serve as a substitute but that is not allowed. They understand the daycare has no choice. If they do not follow guidelines they could lose their state license.

Speaking at the Saul Alinsky & Luddite Alliance Institute in Sant Cruz, California yesterday. President Obama expanded his popular ATM initiative. The initiative to rid the country of job-killing ATM's and replace them with people. The President explained that the first ATM was introduced December 1972 at Lloyds Bank by IBM in the UK and that is when high tech started killing jobs. Then he said, "Why not other inventions since 1972? Why should they get a pass? If we can change the borders of Israel to 1967, why not the borders of job-killing technology?" Obama said with his preacher...

I humbly suggest the following neologism: Progluddite (pronounced like troglodyte). Definition: a misinformed, misguided political ideologue who believes that technological regression will force humanity to build a New Age Utopia. On its face, the word Progluddite seems nonsensical. It is an oxymoronic pairing of Progressive (one who is interested in new ideas) and Luddite (one who rejects new technology). However, the word is merely a reflection of the self-contradictory nature of progressive notions.

In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan set to air tonight, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the expanding threat of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan has changed his thinking on the safety of nuclear power. “It certainly caused me to reconsider the projects of building civil nuclear power plants,” Netanyahu said. “I have to tell you I was a lot more enthusiastic about it than I am now.” Netanyahu, whose conversation with Morgan touches on Israel, Palestine, the spread of uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, said what’s happening in Japan is a “confluence of a natural disaster...

[James Lee Demands as posted at http://www.savetheplanetprotest.com/] The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue...

By Anne Sullivan TRENTON — Police are looking for a man accused of damaging engines as they were being built at the Chrysler Trenton South Engine Plant. Robert Allen Colling, 55, of Washington Township is wanted on one count of attempted malicious destruction of personal property. It is a felony charge that carries a penalty of 2 1/2 years in prison or a $5,000 fine, police Sgt. Mark Enright said. “Chrysler (officials) found some bolts in engine blocks, and apparently there were witnesses who saw him walking in the area (and) drop bolts into a cylinder head,” he said. “They...

Scientists at Harvard University have found that tropical cyclones readily inject ice far into the stratosphere, possibly feeding global warming. The finding, published in Geophysical Research Letters, provides more evidence of the intertwining of severe weather and global warming by demonstrating a mechanism by which storms could drive climate change. Many scientists now believe that global warming, in turn, is likely to increase the severity of tropical cyclones. "Since water vapor is an important greenhouse gas, an increase of water vapor in the stratosphere would warm the Earth's surface," says David M. Romps, a research associate in Harvard's Department of...

1st paragraph (with link to abstract): "Our recent paper “Climate response to regional radiative forcing during the twentieth century”, has generated some interesting discussion (some of it very 'interesting' indeed). So this post is an attempt to give a better context to the methods and implications of the study." Yet more aerosols: Comment on Shindell and Faluvegi Most intriguing paragraph: "In the absence of increasing greenhouse gases, our large historical emissions of sulfate precursors would have led to substantial cooling from sulfate, and the subsequent reduction in emissions would have brought temperatures back towards their previous level. So reduced sulfate...

The scientific community is practically giddy at the prospect of the Obama administration after the supposed cynicism, manipulation and ignorance of the Bush years. After all, the president has promised to "restore science to its rightful place", and to "harness the power of science to achieve our goals". Comparing Obama to Abraham Lincoln, Harvard professor and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science James McCarthy gushed: "Much like Lincoln, President Obama exhibits intense curiosity and a willingness to listen. Perhaps never before has a president successfully recruited so many scientific stars to his cabinet and other...

The following speaks pretty much for itself, and we have provided the entire statement so there is no chance of taking words out of context. The thought that someone who is so ignorant as to believe that automation and technology harms workers–the exact position of the Luddites two centuries ago–could even conceivably become a Senator, let alone President, is truly frightening. Barack Obama on Economics: ‘We’re Going Through a Big Shift’ [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121365641014879041.html?mod=Leader-US] June 17, 2008 …WSJ: You talked about the last eight years and the question of redistribution goes way back … Sen. Obama: Oh, there’s no doubt about it....