Diary

Though I'm sure that many are becoming unsettled by the recent news, at heart I still find it a little boring. To me this seems like a sequel to "When Donald Met Roy" or "Donald and Adolf: The Bromance Across Time." I've been trying to think of what the next blockbuster title might be. It could be a sequel in the "Superman" series. In this film, global warming accelerates suddenly because of the energy demands created by cryptocurrency and AI. As the world heats up, it becomes uninhabitable for humans, and Elon Musk plans to escape to Mars with his children. Elon develops a site on Mars over a period of several years and then permanently departs Earth via SpaceX. However, soon after the Musks arrive on Mars, they find that there are many others already living there in a large colony nearby that was unknown on Earth. That colony, it turns out, is inhabited by Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance. They all live in luxurious mansions, except for J.D. Vance, who lives in the servants' quarters on the Thiel estate. Because Elon has had falling-outs with most of them, he decides to change his identity. He changes his physical appearance and voice and names himself Clark Kent. The Kents, he tells them, are relatives of Warren Buffett, and had lived on a large farm in Kansas. Over time, they all get along fairly well, but they still feel a little claustrophobic. Using AGI and robots, Elon begins his galactic seeding plan by setting up new colonies on Europa, orbiting Jupiter, and Enceladus, orbiting Saturn. Eventually, the Musks move beyond the solar system.

I am starting to think of AI as the largest potential danger emerging for mankind. This is because I've started to read Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI, by Karen Hao. It is the first serious book that I've seen about the current people and culture in Silicon Valley. So far, they generally seem like wealth-maximization robots, and Sam Altman is not an improvement. It is also concerning to me that governments are not doing anything in preparation for the unemployment wave that has already started. It looks to me as if Trump is unknowingly serving as a tool for Silicon Valley. His ideas regarding trade deficits and manufacturing jobs are just plain ludicrous when you look at employment trends at the largest companies in the world. There are going to be fewer jobs, period. Nevertheless, there are some good AI people out there, and Geoffrey Hinton is recommending that people who aren't millionaires study subjects such as plumbing. I think he's right.

As for myself, I am starting to imagine that I inhabit a small, wooded country which, for security reasons, hasn't announced itself publicly. The residents are all relatively well-adjusted. The eastern phoebe eggs in the nest above the front porch have hatched, and the chicks will probably leave within a few days. They prefer Earth to Mars, so I may see them again next year. There have been no mice in the house this year, but they still live nearby. The only annoyances are that they like to store nuts under the hood of my car and take nesting materials. They like paper towels, rope, cotton and soft foam, but so far haven't done much damage. The tomatoes are doing very well this year, and, since they are protected, there have been no deer attacks. I think that I may have too many tomatoes again, though there are only three plants. Two are Fantastic F1, which I grow every year. I used to grow Sungold F1 cherry tomatoes every year because someone I knew liked them. I didn't, and this year I'm trying Artemis F1, which I think will taste much better. There was a delay in setting up my telescope, because the new mount didn't come with a power supply. That has arrived, and I should be viewing again within a few days.

The spring weather here has not been optimal. It has mostly been cold and wet. Then there was a three-day heat wave – but I still haven't used an air conditioner. The hiking trails are extremely overgrown at the moment, and there are lots of insects. The deer flies are out, and I'm leery of them because I think that I caught Lyme disease from them in 2019. It is also theoretically possible to get it from mosquitoes. I don't think that I had any ticks in 2019.