Any Successful Technology has Powerful Social Consequences

And these are usually not noticed by those most affected by it. We are strange creatures - we make our technologies, but then they make us.

I am thinking about this today, because I am trying to understand my complicated relationship to the Computer. I am trying to understand it - while most people are trying their best to not understand it.

They know, in their unconscious minds, that it is effecting them profoundly (and not always in the best of ways) - and they have compensated for this, by saying - it has had no effect on them at all!

They know how to use it, and for them, that is enough.

For them, the Computer is something out there - and they are something in here. Two separate worlds, that do not interact. A separation that can only exist in their minds.

On a practical level - how can I delete computer services I no longer want? It's amazing how determined they are, to keep getting into my bank account.

They may not like me - but they sure like my money!

She Don Know How to Dress, But She Do Know How to Talk

TED Niki Okuk

This gal got to be the worst-dressed gal in South-Central Los Angeles - and her body is nothing to look at. But she sure can talk!

She believes worker-owned companies are the new Capitalism - and they are going to save the world!

I doubt that, but they may be forming a new niche in the Economy - in the worst places in the Economy - such as the black ghetto where she lives - in her parlance, in the hood.

Computer People, who are Also People People

TED Zeynep Tufekci

There aren't many of these - but this gal is definitely one of them. She asks questions about AI you aren't supposed to ask.

I am also studying Gestalt Psychology, and Cryptocurrencies. And there are similar approaches in all three fields.

You gotta be careful with superficial appearances - they can bite you in the ass!

The British Royal Family, as Seen from Below

Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor

This book was not intended as an exposé. But, after reading it - one cannot help but feel, that it is. 

And one can see how the British Empire - the largest empire ever - was bound to fail. 

Here is a quote about Queen Victoria:

She ruled her family with dedication and unswerving attention, and overlooked their faults with the same devoted blindness that kept her from seeing the faults of her nation.

Too Much of Too Much

You know what I am talking about here, before I say anything else.

Sometime back in the 19th Century, as far as I can tell - we ended up with too much of everything, and didn't know how to handle this. This drove us crazy, in all kinds of ways.

And most importantly - we were not able to recognize this.

It's not hard to see how this happened. We ended up with so many wonderful things - we forgot about ourselves. To put this another way - our better self was delicate, and easily damaged - and it got smashed in the mad rush to get more.

This explains the affluent countries, such as the US - what about the rest? I am in a good position to answer that question, since I now live in Costa Rica, in Latin America - that ended up holding the short end of the stick. Latinos are not rich, far from it - but they very much want to be - and will do almost anything to get there.

This desperation only makes their situation worse. They cannot stop, and ask themselves what they really want - all they can do is point at the affluent countries, and say "We want to be like them!"

They can see, easily enough - that these people who have so much, live a life they cannot stand. But, on the other hand - they cannot see this. Something about that wealth blinds them also.

Your Digital Identity

You got one, but it's probably been corrupted.

Take me, for example. I been kicked out of the Cloud twice! First, out of the IBM cloud - that didn't matter too much. Then out of the Microsoft Cloud - and that did matter! I was trying my hardest to learn its .NET framework, especially its F# language. But Microsoft decided I was an undesirable person - and gave me the boot.

I know what it feels like to be a nigger - even if all my family is a white as the driven snow.

"Tough shit!" You may say, "You shouldn't be looking at those bad things so much. Keep your mind clean, and no one will know you are there!"

But I gotta be me. And I have powerful ways of making people see me. They can look other ways - but I am still here.

We Really Must Start Behaving Ourselves

We have been behaving like spoiled children.

Ortega y Gasset observed this back in the Thirties, when Fascism was on the rise in his own country of Spain - and was spreading rapidly. He looked around him, saw what was happening, reported his findings - and was ignored.

Maybe his diagnosis of spoiled children was not so good - he was trying to describe a complex phenomena - but there is an element of truth in it. Industrialization had made them rich - but treated them badly - and now they were going to get even, by destroying the world that had destroyed them.

I think this is a better way of looking at the problem - by looking at the widespread destructiveness that is going on everywhere. And ignored everywhere.

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I can holler all I want about this - but I am wasting my breath. At certain times in history - everything falls apart, and nothing can put them back together. Humpty Dumpty has fallen of his wall.

All we can do is look at the results - a bunch of little pieces that used to form a whole - and marvel at them.