Meanderings, 13 July 2024

Our weather has turned uber summery of late — high humidity, high temperatures, lots of sun with some strong winds and rains. Everything is green. The cana lilies are flowering, the balloon flowers are fighting for space, and our grasses are filled out for the year. And I feel for my friends in Houston who are suffering from power outages in their incomparable heat. And, the Guardians are in 1st place.

Photo by Katie Shupe on Unsplash

Roger calls it out. Are you hearing this?

Recently I have heard or read an almost avalanche of references to “the universe” (or “fate”) as if it were God. If you watch American television, movies, read (or listen to) novels, short stories, etc. You should know what I mean.

“The universe brought us together.” “The universe is punishing me.” “The universe planned this.” “The universe is telling me.” Substitute “fate” for “the universe” and the same kinds of statements can be heard and read in popular culture. Often. Very often.

I am struck by how, in the not-too-distant past, “God” would have OFTEN (I’m not saying always) been in place of “the universe” or “fate.” In the last two to three decades, however, God has been banished from discourse, except in specifically religious discourse, of course, but “the universe” has been/is being treated as if it has intentional agency.

I understand why this is happening/has happened. Makers of popular culture do not want to be labeled as “religious” or “Christian,” the universe forbid! And secularism has risen in popular culture. And makers of popular culture think mentioning God might offend some readers, viewers. And they don’t want to deal with the avalanche of emails, letters, phone calls protesting mention of God—as if God is necessarily only an idea of fanatical religious people or people of a specific religion.

But what strikes me is that characters in novels, movies, and television shows still can’t get away from SOME idea of a transcendent power that has intentions and person-like agency and meddles in their lives. (Of course, I know it is not really the characters or actors but the writers who cannot do this.)

But, in that case, WHY “the universe” and not “God?” In that case, those cases, don’t they mean pretty much the same thing? Can an atheist or totally secular person really think that the universe had person-like intentional agency? Or that fate has it? Aren’t the writers having their characters say something religious? To invest “the universe” or “fate” with person-like intentional agency amounts to saying there is a god? Even if that god is NOT the god of any particular religion? Saying “God brought us together” does not have to affirm or assume any particular religion. So why this aversion to god-talk in popular media and culture?

I suspect that people are, on this point, anyway, just being stupid. Or duped. Or both.

I know. Someone will say here that “The universe brought us together” is just a figure of speech. But is it? Doesn’t it reveal an implicit belief in some person-like agency that transcends nature? It does.

As Kris has been saying of late when she bumps into something ludicrous: “Wuuuut?” So here:

Adults in some U.S. states can now buy gun ammunition out of AI-powered vending machines right at their local grocery store.

The company that makes them argues it’s a safer way to sell ammo than online or off the shelf. But experts have raised concerns about increasing its availability in a country where gun violence is already widespread.

American Rounds LLC currently stocks its “automated ammo retail machines” in eight supermarkets across Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas (at least one was removed earlier this month from an Alabama location, per local news reports). They are launching another this week in Colorado and say many more are on the way.

“We had requests in Hawaii, requests in Alaska, from California to Florida and every state in between for the most part,” CEO Grant Magers told NPR. “We have currently about 200 grocery stores that we're working on fulfilling orders on machines for.”

The Dallas-based company, which Magers says has about 10 employees, shot into the national media spotlight this month. But it has been supplying stores with vending machines since November 2023, when it installed its first at a Fresh Value location in Pell City, Ala.

Magers said he was approached earlier that year by “some strategic partners that we had done business with in another space” who were interested in possibly using high-tech vending machines to sell ammo at grocery stores. His team set out to investigate the landscape.

[SMcK: our European friends don’t need any more evidence of our nuttiness.]

Crisp, clear, fierce.

Goldman Sachs, AI, and greed’s endless desire:

A week and a half ago, Goldman Sachs put out a 31-page-report (titled "Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?”) that includes some of the most damning literature on generative AI I've ever seen. And yes, that sound you hear is the slow deflation of the bubble I've been warning you about since March. 

The report covers AI's productivity benefits (which Goldman remarks are likely limited), AI's returns (which are likely to be significantly more limited than anticipated), and AI's power demands (which are likely so significant that utility companies will have to spend nearly 40% more in the next three years to keep up with the demand from hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft).

This report is so significant because Goldman Sachs, like any investment bank, does not care about anyone's feelings unless doing so is profitable. It will gladly hype anything if it thinks it'll make a buck. Back in May, it was claimed that AI (not just generative AI) was "showing very positive signs of eventually boosting GDP and productivity," even though said report buried within it constant reminders that AI had yet to impact productivity growth, and states that only about 5% of companies report using generative AI in regular production.

For Goldman to suddenly turn on the AI movement suggests that it’s extremely anxious about the future of generative AI, with almost everybody agreeing on one core point: that the longer this tech takes to make people money, the more money it's going to need to make.

Lots of koalas:

The giant OKA, an Australian Hummer-like all-terrain vehicle, motored down the dirt road, shaking, rattling and rolling so loudly it was nearly impossible to hear my guide, Scott Coutts. A former park ranger who now works for Naturaliste Tours, Coutts drove by vast tracts of cattle- and sheep-grazing fields as we kept an eye out for echidnas, long-nosed potoroos and koalas. Here on French Island, in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, the furry, leaf-eating marsupials were remarkably easy to spot as they snoozed in the crooks of tree branches, cuddled their joeys or munched on eucalyptus leaves.

One of the most unique locations in Australia, French Island, situated 42 miles yet worlds away from Melbourne, is populated by just 110 human inhabitants, an eclectic mix of farmers, eco-conscious granolas and recluses. As the only unincorporated territory in the state of Victoria, the island has no government services whatsoever. No paved roads. No water supply. No electricity. No garbage collection services. No medical services. No police. And the islanders want to keep it that way.

Since there is no bridge to the island, its few thousand annual visitors arrive by foot ferry and often bring their bicycles to tour. Two-thirds of French Island consists of regenerated national park land teeming with 230 bird species and around 600 species of plants, including 105 species of wild orchids. But the stars of this off-grid spot are surely the koalas.

Estimated at 5,000 to 7,000 individuals, the koala population is the largest and healthiest in the state of Victoria, and second only in size to that of Kangaroo Island in the whole country. While Kangaroo Island’s population in the state of South Australia is more bountiful, those koalas “were actually introduced and translocated from the French Island population in the 1970s,” Coutts said.