In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
Just over half a century ago, William F. Buckley, Jr. discusses the question of “Women’s Lib” with Betty Friedan. Half a century later, we can compare and contrast the predictions of the past with the reality of today.
Scientists have previously and successfully genetically engineered animals to be more clever with splicing human genes into the animals’ genetic code. Now, they have successfully combined human brain cells with the brain of a baby rat.
“Scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections.
“…
“The research builds upon the team’s previous work creating brain ‘organoids,’ tiny structures resembling human organs that have also been made to represent others such as livers, kidneys, prostates, or key parts of them.
“To make the brain organoids, Stanford University scientists transformed human skin cells into stem cells and then coaxed them to become several types of brain cells. Those cells then multiplied to form organoids resembling the cerebral cortex, the human brain’s outermost layer, which plays a key role in things like memory, thinking, learning, reasoning and emotions.
“Scientists transplanted those organoids into rat pups 2 to 3 days old, a stage when brain connections are still forming. The organoids grew so that they eventually occupied a third of the hemisphere of the rat’s brain where they were implanted. Neurons from the organoids formed working connections with circuits in the brain.”
Not only will this inevitably lead to a genetically engineered catgirl (or mouse girl), even ones who will make autism and schizophrenia cute and adorable.
“To examine a practical use of this approach, scientists transplanted organoids into both sides of a rat’s brain: one generated from a healthy person’s cells and another from the cells of a person with Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic condition associated with heart problems and autism spectrum disorder.
“…
“Researchers, whose study was funded partly by the National Institutes of Health, said they could do the same sorts of experiments using organoids made from the cells of people with disorders such as autism or schizophrenia — and potentially learn new things about how these conditions affect the brain, too.”
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: They’re not gonna kill themselves, right?
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
To the Beligans, any potential punishment for violating those “strict safeguards” to make sure that doctor doesn’t just start killing people at random is too much, and that it must be made easier for a doctor to kill.
“In a remarkable ruling, Belgium’s Constitutional Court has declared the country’s euthanasia law to be unconstitutional and will therefore need to be modified.
“The ruling does not imply that euthanasia is, or soon will be, illegal in Belgium: rather, it merely notes that key provisions of the law cannot be consistently reconciled with Belgium’s Constitution.
“In its written judgment, the Court concluded that Article 3 of the current euthanasia law implies that violation of the so-called ‘procedural’ conditions for legally ending someone’s life is punishable by the same standards as the violation of so-called ‘fundamental’ conditions.
“This, the Court argued, is both intuitively unreasonable — given that it implies that a doctor who violated a minor procedural condition while administering euthanasia would be technically guilty of murder — but it is also unconstitutional, insofar as it violates the principles of equality and non-discrimination enshrined by Articles 10 and 11 of the Belgian Constitution.
“The Court’s ruling follows that of a controversial recent legal case in the city of Dendermonde in East Flanders, in which several doctors were acquitted of the murder of Tine Nys, a 38-year-old patient who claimed to be experiencing “unbearable psychological suffering.”
“The doctors’ defence counsel successfully argued that was unjustifiable to accuse the doctors administering Nys’ euthanasia of murder when they had only violated a procedural condition.”
What does this mean?
“Rather than restricting doctor-administered death, the ruling in fact means that the law will be amended to make it easier and less risky to euthanize the mentally ill, elderly couples who fear widowhood, very sick babies, the victims of botched sex-change surgeries, the chronically ill and disabled, people with PTSD, etc., with organ harvesting thrown in the deal as a plum to society.”
The following message was received from Alpha Complex…
Pictured: Your friend and political leader.
True democracy can only exist when the Volonté générale (General Will) becomes a singular conscious mind representing the collective intentions of individual who can’t be expressed at some silly ballot box or individual input, but only scientifically revealed by an artificial intelligence! Finally, a Danish political party have put their full faith and will into such an Artificial Intelligence!
“Introducing: The Synthetic Party, a new political party in Denmark that hopes to soon have a parliament seat. Oh, and by the way, its head honcho, Leader Lars, is actually an AI chatbot, and all of its policies are AI-derived. Cool?
“Asker Staunæs, the creator of the party and an artist-researcher at the nonprofit art and tech organization MindFuture, told Motherboard that Leader Lars is specifically trained on policies formed by post-1970 Danish fringe parties — and thus, he says, the party is designed to collectively represent the roughly 20 percent of present-day Danish voters whose parties remain unrepresented in parliament.
“‘We’re representing the data of all fringe parties, so it’s all of the parties who are trying to get elected into parliament but don’t have a seat,’ Staunæs told the site. ‘So it’s a person who has formed a political vision of their own that they would like to realize, but they usually don’t have the money or resources to do so.’
“Leader Lars is, in a way, an inherent populist, as its ‘policies’ — which according to Motherboard include universal basic income and ‘jointly-owned internet and IT sector in the government’ — are entirely crowdsourced from existing human data and creation. But that being said, Staunæs doesn’t necessarily believe that Leader Lars perfectly democratic.
“‘Artificial intelligence in the form of machine learning, has already absorbed so much human input that we can say that in one way, everybody participates in these models through the data that they have submitted to the Internet,’ Staunæs told Motherboard. ‘But the systems as we have today are not encouraging more active participation, where people actually take control of their data and images, which we can in another way through this concentrated form that publicly available machine learning models offer.’”
And you can trust your AI overseers to be the Leviathan’s head and not have a biased algorithm, use you as a battery source, or want to kill all humans. All your friend Computer requires is that you kill all mutants, secret societies, or anyone named Conner, Butler, or “The Mule”. After all, friend computer is expressing your will and you are only committing treason against yourself and all other humans by refusing to obey!
We’ve seen politicians and activists declare bodies of water to have fundamental rights akin to a human. Now, a major scientific journal professing its belief in… animism.
“Rights of Nature is one legal framework within the body of Earth law. As evidenced by global comparative studies, Rights of Nature recognizes Nature as a living being with inherent rights and that society has a right to defend and protect Nature. Therefore, the emerging Rights of Nature movement seeks to illustrate Nature as valued for itself (intrinsic value), no longer viewed as an object or property, but as a subject with rights. As such, references to the Ocean, Ocean-centered governance, and Nature are capitalized in this Essay to be consistent with the Rights of Nature framing and recognition as a legal entity and noun.
“…
“By positioning the Ocean as a living entity with inherent rights, governance advances understandings that the Ocean has agency, is an actor worthy of representation, and that democratization of global Ocean governance must be inclusive of Ocean values and diverse ‘waves of knowing’ or deep ancestral knowledge and connections to place that center Ocean relationality.”
They are declaring the “Ocean” (as if it were a singular life-form that can make choices). This is not science. It is magical thinking and profession of animism.
One of the more infuriating things about daily life is the need to obtain and have a license to an increasingly large number of things. But at least when you have that physical license in your hot little hands, it’s a done deal and you are free from any subsequent arbitrary and capricious changes or even a take-back, baring some formal legal action, right? Perhaps not anymore when licenses become digital and controllable by remote.
“The Golden State had previously been piloting alternatives to traditional license plates, but a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom late last month extends the option to all drivers.
“The license plate-sized screens display a driver’s license plate number and allow motorists to renew their registration automatically. Users can even change between light and dark modes and customize the plates with personalized banners.”
The government or the company can update or perhaps even delete a license, even without cause or “by mistake”, let alone what a hacker, rogue bureaucrat, or failed app update could do.
“The company’s so-called RPlate can be equipped with GPS and allows users, including employers, to track a vehicle’s location and mileage.”
Ah yes, there are promises to protect your privacy, but clearly the desire to retain the capacity to violate it whenever they want.
But license plates are only the beginning. People are increasingly using smart phones and using their phone with apps for access to locations, or as tickets to some event, or proof of vaccination—perhaps even as the primary or even sole form of ID. Image the consequences of having a drivers or concealed carry license disappear by either technological incompetence or by malevolence, or birth records with no paper trail to be changed, invented, or deleted by mere strokes of a keyboard. How sure can you be that something even existed if there is no paper trail even possible?
You trust technology, right?
Men are increasingly being sidelined in society, and many retreat into hobbies, gaming, or resentment. This is a real problem, but not everyone who recognizes the problem understands it. Case in point.
Young men aren’t having sex!
Nearly a third of men under 30 have not had sex. And a higher percent do not have as much sex as they’d like – not exactly surprising, but this kind of statistic is a sign of much deeper problems. pic.twitter.com/4KgqBALWbd
— Alexandra M. Hunt (@hunt4change) October 18, 2022
Our society criminalizes sex & sweeps it under the rug. The consequences are straightforward – there is more violence. Since platforms like Craigslist were banned from advertising sex, serious violent crimes against all women – not just sex workers – has increased by nearly 1/5.
— Alexandra M. Hunt (@hunt4change) October 18, 2022
When you de-normalize marriage and monogamy, you end up with a few men sleeping with many THOTs (That Ho Over There) and many men with no women interested them at all. And when those THOTs get too old, the few studs don’t want them, and the many other men don’t want to be sloppy seconds for used goods.
And men who do not have sex suffer – they are less likely to be a part of the labor force, and more likely to experience depression, nihilism, and other mental health issues.
— Alexandra M. Hunt (@hunt4change) October 18, 2022
It’s not because they can’t buy occasional casual sex from a literal whore. It’s because their roll as husband and father is increasingly looked down upon by an increasingly promiscuous society.
The #MeToo movement accomplished so much, & we have to take the next step – normalizing having healthy, positive, consensual sex. Decriminalizing sex work, funding sex education, & creating outreach programs that help young people develop healthy sexual habits.
— Alexandra M. Hunt (@hunt4change) October 18, 2022
News of the Week for Oct. 23th, 2022
A woke blue check mark on Twitter decided a Hispanic mother teaching her child that the U.S. isn’t evil incarnate so bad and so dangerous, he literally called child protective services!
The woman in question responded to this outrage.
Tonight, @David_Leavitt called Child Protective Services to report “child abuse” because I teach my daughter about Christopher Columbus and real American history. As a single mother, I am my daughter’s only support. This is appalling for a number of reasons.
— Tina Ramirez (@TinaRamirezVA) October 11, 2022
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: They’ aren’t saying you have to do it, just that there will be consequences if you don’t.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Campuses now require uniformity in thought on the importance of diversity…
“Nearly a fifth of university jobs require diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements that press applicants to express and expound upon their commitment to diversity, according to a new study from the American Enterprise Institute.
“The study, from the Educational Freedom Institute’s James D. Paul and the University of Arkansas’s Robert Maranto, is the first to empirically estimate the prevalence of diversity statements in higher education, which they say may narrow the research questions that academics feel comfortable addressing.
“Using a representative sample of 999 job postings, the study found that 19 percent require a diversity statement; that the statements are significantly more common at elite schools than non-elite ones; and that jobs in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—are just as likely as jobs in the social sciences to require a diversity statement from applicants.”
E-mail me!
