Quantumfreakonomics
No bio...
User ID: 324
Quantumfreakonomics
17hr ago
Anthropic is Now Running Television Ads Threatening Humanity
I saw this ad play on my tv while watching the England vs Argentina postgame. I could not believe what I was watching. I had vaguely heard of a tone-deaf video from Anthropic communications, but I hadn't actually watched it until it popped up on my screen against my will. I am stunned that this is how Anthropic chose to portray themselves to the general public. Maybe this sort of messaging works on a tiny subset of niche technological policy nerds, but they played this during the World Cup.
The ad opens with scenes of destruction: a house ablaze, civil unrest in the streets, hundreds of graves at Arlington National Cemetary. A concerned voiceover asks the questions that many of us ask of the AI industry every day. "Can AI be trusted?" "Who's gonna hit the brakes if we need to?" "How do we really ensure that what we're aiming to acheive really does benefit the majority of people?" All good questions that the rest of the ad is utterly unconcerned with answering.
It feels like a threat. It doesn't feel like they're saying, "oh please God somebody stop us". It feels like they're saying, "just try and stop us, MUAHAHAHAHA!" I suppose it's good that they acknowledge the gravity of what they are undertaking, but that doesn't really matter if they keep doing it anyway.
Also, sort-of-unrelated-but-not-really: Is "Total Clanker Genocide" an acceptable sign for an anti-AI protest?
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
It's not so much off-putting as ambiguous. Some people believe that these things are caused by literal actual demons, the kind that are repelled by holy water and ecclesiastical Latin. Does OP think that the appropriate solution here is the faithful application of the official Catholic Church manual of exorcism? Inquiring minds want to know.
Quantumfreakonomics
1d ago
Abortion kills babies? Wow, you're telling me now for the first time.
I'm not really sure what makes this any worse than a mother deciding to abort her own personal child for birth defects. The fact that the rights to make decisions on the fate of the pregnancy were (allegedly) sold doesn't change anything apart from making the whole situation darkly amusing.
I wouldn't put ending voluntary abortion on my top 10 list of political ambitions, but it does warm my heart every time I pass by the abandoned ruins of what used to be the metro Planned Parenthood.
Quantumfreakonomics
2d ago
There was speculation that the 3rd amendment would come into play if Trump had sent the national guard into Minneapolis.
Quantumfreakonomics
4d ago
Bernie Sanders isn't about to be deposed by his Bumble date.
Quantumfreakonomics
5d ago
Except Thomas Massie, a Republican-turned-independent, would almost certainly win if the party endorsed him.
It doesn't matter if the party endorses him, it matters if Trump endorses him. Republican primary voters do what Trump tells them to do. Trump hates Massie for releasing the Epstein Files, opposing his wars, and being anti-corruption. Andy Beshear would win the senate seat if Trump endorsed him too.
Quantumfreakonomics
5d ago
No amount of worldly carnal pleasures will measure up to the spiritual nirvanah the rationalists will feel in the few moments between seeing the flash and burning to death. They were right, and everyone else was wrong. Their arguments were valid, everyone else's invalid. If only the sheeple had listened and installed Eliezer Yudkowsky as Emperor of Terra this could have all been avoided.
And they will be right to feel this way.
Quantumfreakonomics
6d ago
even the most serious esoteric Catholic fascist conspiracy theorist
I'ma let you finish, but E. Michael Jones is the greatest esoteric Catholic fascist conspiracy theorist OF ALL TIME.
Quantumfreakonomics
6d ago
That's the point. The Republican Party apparatus does not have the power (either de facto or de jure) to remove candidates from the ballot. The Democratic Party apparatus does. All of Trump's influence over congress is directly mediated by the voters through primary elections. The Republican Party is more democratic than the Democratic Party.
Quantumfreakonomics
6d ago
What's happening in Maine now and what happened nationally in 2024 is similar to that, but it's a rare exception to the normal course of business.
I don't know. It's starting to look like a pattern. Do we even know if Maine Democratic primary voters wanted Platner to drop out?
Republicans don't do this. Todd Akin, Roy Moore, and Mark Robinson all stuck it out to the bitter end. Occasionally losing a winnable race is worth it to maintain the democratic legitimacy of the party and to capture the occasional lightning in a bottle (imagine if Trump had been forced out in 2016).
I'm pretty sure it's this. They want Curtis Yarvin's cryptographically secure totalitarian regime, but with liberal constitutionalist characteristics.
More options
Context Copy link