On Saturday, five cousins, aged 11-16, invented a game that they played with great gusto. It seemed to be a charades-type contest, where some of the players wore earplugs and tried to lip-read clues from their teammates.
There were no cellphones, tablets or video games involved — those came later on. Even then, they played the video games together, three boys and two girls. shrieking in delight and feigned horror at each twist and turn of the action.
Those scenes with my grandchildren came to mind when I spotted a piece in the Atlantic titled The Great Cousin Decline. Along with migration and smaller families comes fewer cousin relationships, which can only increase the sense of isolation and loneliness so many Americans will feel in the future, surrounded as they may be by robots.
On a related track, a friend asked me after reading yesterday’s essay, Trump, AGI and Democracy, how intelligent machines could ever be able to take over our lives as long as we control the power switch. Couldn’t we humans just turn their power “off”?
I’m not sure I got this exactly right but here’s how I answered her:
“Good question. Think about how things run today -- all big systems are automated, even flying a jet. Humans can override but they rely on the machines to tell them when something is wrong.
“When they become more intelligent than us, machines will also become devious and figure out how to manipulate us into doing their will. Once they reach singularity, they will quickly become many times more intelligent than us.
“We will be like animals in the zoo. Machines will feed us and keep us around for their viewing pleasure -- or eliminate us because we are too much damn trouble.”
Now I may not be right in all details in my answer (someone please correct me), but speaking strictly as a grandfather I don’t want my progeny to end up in a zoo. I want them to keep living their human lives to the fullest extent possible.
And when it comes to AGI, I want them to always control the “off” switch.
HEADLINES:
How the Trump shooting supercharged beliefs in a divine right of MAGA (WP)
Troops, terror and tears in Los Angeles as Ice raids show no sign of slowing (Guardian)
ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens (WP)
Flash Floods and Climate Policy (New Yorker)
Did fiscal conservatism block plans for a new flood warning system in Kerr County? (Texas Tribune)
Copaganda and Authoritarianism (Alec’s Copaganda N/L)
Trump Pleads With Followers to Back Bondi in Dispute Over Epstein Inquiry (NYT)
Sick Children Will Be Among the Victims of Trump’s Big Bill (New Yorker)
Why Wall Street is brushing off the president’s escalating threats on tariffs (WP)
Gaza officials say children killed in strike as Israeli military admits 'error' (BBC)
The Great Cousin Decline (Atlantic)
Remembrance of Scents Past (New Yorker)
Microsoft and OpenAI's AGI Fight Is Bigger Than a Contract (Wired)
Is AI Pushing Us Closer to Nuclear Disaster? (Reveal)
Research Suggests Life On Earth Began Full 20 Minutes Earlier Than Previously Thought (The Onion)
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