@ontheprecipice.bsky.social
Lot's of life experience in science, politics, business, main interest: safeguarding the Earth's life-support system on which the welfare of all of us and others depends. Home: place4us.net
Should the Tech #oligarchs be allowed to reshape #humanity & determine our #future? In "Goliath's Curse" Luke Kemp points out that people walk away when the top extractive elites are to dominating. Do we need to walk away from #AI & transformative #technology?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
The data used to train e.g. #ChatGPT has been screened in Uganda by economically enslaved people to make sure undesired contents on rape, torture etc is not used to train ChatGPT. Using this tool supports this modern form of slavery! Check your #ethos before you pay #OpenAI!
The AI tools we happily use are deeply unethical. They are based on resources extracted by a modern form of #slavery. For example, the #cobalt needed for the #chips in the computers for AI come to a large part from horrible mines in the DCR.
Yes, our #consciousness is under attack. What some call #AI (artificial intelligence) is simply "automated cognition." This AC is increasingly dominating our #cognition & thinking. This needs to stop!
www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...
The fact that #sealevel is globally 30 cm and regional up to 150 cm higher than assumed in most #risk assessments establishes an urgent need to revise many risk assessments & efforts to develop #coastal #resilience. #climateemergency #sealevelrise #climatejustice
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
0.35C per decade means 3.5C in a century. While this extrapolation may not hold (or turn out to be too small), this poses an existential risk. Are you prepared, humanity, to manage that risk? #climateemergency #climatecrisis #netzero #climatescience #globalwarming
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
also noise pollution in the U.S. is almost entirely from cars and it’s literally giving people heart attacks
I wrote an article about it because it’s so absurd
This is one of the things I am constantly (including in our book, Life After Cars) trying to get people to care about! This is killing us, folks
The most effective conservation actions are those that address the critical linkages between population, health, & the environment. This includes efforts to empower local communities and improve people’s health. Many of our partners employ this #PHE model.
⬇️
populationconnection.org/learn/intern...
I like to put myself in the shoes of an alien ecologist visiting this unique planet with a complex web-of-life not found anywhere else in the universe. It keeps me sane when I watch how a completely insane species is destroying their beautiful home planet for nothing but imaginary wealth of a few.
Me. I'm a mad scientist.
(Paul Noth cartoons)
If Democrats want to regain working people, they must disavow Big Money.
They must hammer economic populism — and have a laser focus on the cost of living crisis in America.
There’s no way the party can speak for or represent the working class in America if it's beholden to corporate interests.
AI is tricking us and already coming for our dignity. The important question asked by Hudson in the article is: How long before it comes for everything else?
Even a video on You-Tube with a speech of someone we like saying things we like may be AI-generated.
Our friends may believe something of this junk is real. How does our friend feel when we tell them: “How could you think this was real?”
AI-generated stuff is impacting human relations and a danger to our #Dignity. With a rapidly growing flood of amusing little online scenarios on #socialmedia, we cannot be sure that something looking funny, weird, or special is real - it could be AI-generated!
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The current #economy is not prepared for #AI eliminating balancing feedback loops and triggering run-away degradation. The economic immune #system has no defense to what could be called the AI #virus. There is no anti-AI #vaccination to help economy survive.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
What a headline! When will actions that cause #climatechange and amplify the #climateemergency be declared a #crimeagainsthumanity?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Having access to decent habitat is a human (and animal) right! A #society where many have to live as street dwellers is an unethical society. #HousingFirst is the start of the way to a better society. Thank you, Sam Tsemberis!
www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...
Very important: "Much like other #billionaires, Benioff’s politics appear to have taken a marked turn in Trump’s second term." This is because they've no #ethos and no backbone. All they have is #money. Nothing else! Careful, #inequality has trigger #revolution.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
"Many social media posts by #Tesla CEO on his platform are indiscernible from those of white #supremacists, say experts." That is because Elon Musk is a #whitesupremacists. No question about that. Like some other I met when living and working in South Africa.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
The view on the spectrum of possible #futures in a world of #climateemergency, #biodiversity loss, #wildlife loss, #pollution. We are heading for the edge, running faster everyday. Why are we not turning around?
Feeling good on Substack with all the Nazis there?
Over the last 50 years, the democratic governments we had again and again have supported the global extinction economy that put Earth on a trajectory to a hothouse. Democrats and Republican alike FAFO. Why would young people vote for them? We need alternatives to the system-supporting parties.
Why are we focusing on this child-like psychopath that currently is the front figure of a failed system we call economy? Over more than 50 years, this system has enriched a few billionaires by extracting everything that can be extracted, exploiting all people, and destroying our future!
Our #governments are failing us! In order to keep the game call #economy going for the #billionaires, they sacrifice our #future. The #Climateemergency requires actions, and the #people need to push for this! Governments won't save us. We need to save ourselves.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
World's economic accounting system of #GDP is designed for the #economy to bring immediate benefits to very wealthy #oligarchs - it's not made to work for the #people, the #environment, or our #future. This won't change until the oligarchs are no longer in power.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
"I can’t say for sure, but I imagine that my last thought – the last image that passes through my mind before I shut down – will be of the children massacred in Gaza and of the surviving Palestinians who face a terrible future." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Building a society that needs less, not more, energy would also help. In fact, it is a necessity! Using more energy means more entropy. Life requires niches of low entropy! Stop using so much energy to have a comfortable life. It's inherently not sustainable!
🧪 It's been 10 years since Dorothy Bishop and I published a commentary in Nature about the risks of transparency. doi.org/10.1038/529459a
1/10
There are many ways to kill #people. One is to keep them away from #vaccination. Maybe this is a secret measure of #Florida #Republicans to reduce #population growths and #overpopulation? Who knows what they think?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...