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Update 1.4 - Personal Update, Automation, Fascism in Alberta, and More.

Personal Update

Okay y'all it has been a heck of week. Shayla and I are going through some critical health scares. For the sake of privacy, I won't go into details. Know that we are in the process of getting care and remain hopeful.

That said, we are both taking a break from our commitments. We will be back in full force as soon as we can.

For me, this means focusing on the basics of my work, my health, and my loves. I enjoy the newsletter as a way to communicate with y'all, however development of the Change Maker platform is going to take a backseat for a bit.

Looking forward to many cozy nights in for the next few months. Here is some members of the squad having at home hot pot:

dinner

Fascism in Alberta

I have written another entire blog post regarding Fascism in Alberta. Much like the USA, we are undergoing a unveiling. The fascists are coming out of the woodwork, and they are not hiding their intentions. For us, this means that we must be vigilant. We must be ready to fight back. Thankfully, the fascists are still outright fought against in Alberta, and I have faith we shall drive them back into the shadows.

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Automation & Content

Have you ever heard of factorio? It is a game where you play as a stranded astronaut on a alien planet trying to build their way back to space. It is a game of automation, resource management, and problem solving.

One thing it showcases well is the momentum in automation. How once the right systems are in place, the game becomes a matter of scale. Automation breeds more automation.

It was one of the principle reasons I invested a tonne of time in early 2022 learning how Large Langue Models (LLMs) work. I wanted to understand the automation of content creation. How is the slop being made, so to speak. It kind of opened up a can of worms for me.

It is too good to be true in many ways. This same technology is what backs surveillance capitalism. Google uses it to tag and find Palestinians in the West Bank. Facebook uses it to track and predict your every move. Twitter uses it to decide what you see and what you don't. I have strong feelings about leftist organizing and the use of these tools.

So these tools are incredibly powerful. They will be fundementaly changing the way we interact with computers. As we communicate more openly with plain language with computers, their personalization will accelerate. We will be able to have conversations with our computers and produce content at a scale we have never seen before.

However, what gets me interested in it, is the labor revolution that is happening. In our lifetimes, we will see robot workers, that we are able to give commands to in plain language, and see those tasks completed. We will see robots that can design, build, and maintain infrastructure. We will see robot swarms overnight build a bridge, renovate a hospital, or even build a house.

Some examples:

  • Robots are becoming the norm on many large construction sites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHtEGCBgzjE
  • Here are robots doing a tonne of random things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRMtxfIJeEQ
  • Here is a youtuber purchasing a humanoid robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4z3psSbMEo
  • Here are advertisements to purchase articulating robotic arms for $3000 per unit: https://youtube.com/shorts/M3jEay0h-Ys?si=4t6tDqdPvXv2xBK8
  • Here is a robot that cooks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uexur9rOxW4
  • Here is a guy who built a robot at home to help make movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9atHsWxTKTE

I could co on forever. My algorithm is filled with robots. It is a special interest however I am constantly amazed by the progress.

Okay, so you might be like

So what Reed? This is all dandy however these robots taking all the jobs doesn't sound great.

I agree. That problem though is not that the jobs are going away, it is that the wealth is not being shared. The robots are doing the work, but the profits are going to the people.

If capitalism is allowed to hoard the wealth, we will see a dystopia. If we are able to share the wealth, we will see a greater society.

The most interesting thing about this all is that a position of cooperation is still the best position for positive outcomes. Open source software, open source hardware, and open source data are the best ways to ensure that the wealth is shared. Engineers, and entire nations, are starting to realize this as well.

Take Deepseek for example. This open source large language model outperforms ChatGPT and is available for free. It effectively erased $1 trillion dollars from the stock market the other day because the veil was lifted on capitalist tech bros who want you to believe they hold the power of gods.

What is a Trillion

A trillion is a million million. It is a in-comprehensible amount of money. Even a billion is a lot of money. A human being is not a capable of parsing a trillion as a real thing. The invention of this number in relation to money is a capitalist trick to make you think that the money is real. It is not. It is just a fiction. It is power. It is showing its cracks already and the American empire is crumbling under the weight of it's attempts to justify trillionaires. I am not sure what the future holds, but I know that the future I wish for has no trillionaires in it.

So this is all to say the future is both bright and dark. It is a time of great change. It is a time of great opportunity. It is a time of great danger. I hope that we are able to navigate it together.

Let me know your thoughts anytime!

Regards, Reed