Collective Action Problem

Isn't this problem of out of control AI rooted in the same capitalist contradiction as climate change? This dilemma of "alignment", trying to make sure the technology is in humanities best interest, is the same one we face with fossil energy. The Market, it shpould be obvious by now, is useless. And government is controlled by Capital. So a good liberal like Ezra Klein sees these labs competing with each other to achieve "recursive self-improvement", AI agents who take over their own training, and he calls for social "control". He asks why aren't their permits and regulations and governance working to serve the publics general interest? Well, why are we still burning fossil fuels: the collective action problem. With so much wealth and power at stake, no one actor is going to stop (building RSI, burning fossil fuel) unless everyone does. Kind of like a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Give up your nukes and get crushed by the other nuclear powers (see Libya). Does Ezra Klein expect the United Nations to enforce a ban on AI development? He claims this development should face the same constraints as building a new high-rise in San Francisco. But this is apples and telephone poles: wholly separate categories. I would love it if these liberals would just admit market failure in both pollution and AI development and begin advocating for democratic planning. Tearing down these corporations and putting ownership of production in the hands of the people who make and consume. Then you would be able to exert genuine "control". You can't have it both ways. If you stick with Capital you face the growth imperative and therefore are doomed to competition and the collective action problem. The only way out is planning, not for profit, but for sufficiency. We all know perfectly well that infinite growth leads to doom but we act as if we don't know it. One day just leads to the next as we slowly crumble around the edges. Not unlike a melting glacier.

Ministry of Culture

The U.S. needs a culture minister. Like Israel's. The actual title is Minister of Culture and Sports and what an important job it is! Israel has an important role in the culture of Germany and we are seeing that played out as the Far Right regains power. “The AfD understands that through culture, they can get into people’s heads, into their mind-sets.” One important part of the job is distraction: keep people focused on things other than genocide and expansionist goals. AfD leaders say as much. “An AfD state government will trigger an overall cultural renewal,” Mr. Tillschneider said in an interview this spring. As in Israel, and the U.S., this is code for anti- Muslim. Then there are the young conservatives in Spain, dressed in their slacks and loafers and dress shirts. they are concerned with the overreaches of feminism, multiculturalism and woke politics as a threat to Spain’s traditional identity. If any of this sounds like the re-kindling of fascism it's because it is, and of course it is trending all across Europe and India and the Americas. "They say that they are on the front lines of a battle for Europe’s cultural and political reversion, with a renewed adherence to religious institutions, traditional gender roles and, for many, the politics of nationalism." In other words, history provides no lessons and it is an important part of the Minister of Culture's job to make sure we learn nothing as a species. Mark Fisher said we should be especially worried when the young stop being full of surprises. What if the surprise is total conformism? Learning to accept conditions as they are so as to get "ahead"?

Running In Place

Some totally new, unorthodox, out-of-the-box thinking: the treasury secretary says economic expansion can get the US out of debt! How original. Wow. Elite thinking at its best. The problem isn't that a drone like Bessent would spout such idiocy. It's that the Wall Street Journal would print it. It's that the WSJ readers would nod and say yeah, that could work. All we would have to do is burn more fossil fuels, extract more productivity out of workers and gut the social safety net. Joila! And right on point we have the EPA removing greenhouse gas regulations from power plants. Remember Obama telling us we could "de-couple" economic growth from emissions? Not so. We can have capitalism or we can have robust ecosystems but we can't have both. Elites understand this perfectly. Guys like Robinson Meyer, founding executive editor of Heatmap, doesn't get it. In a piece in today's Times he says Democrats must embrace fossil fuels if they expect to win elections. Because in a capitalist "democracy", voting will save us eventually. Yes, according to the latest UN report we are blowing past 1.5 degrees, yes, the tech oligarchs are fuelling all their AI compute with methane ( remember how "natural gas" was the "transition fuel" that would wean us from coal?) But Alaskans vote for whoever supports oil so Democrats should support oil. Duh. Robinson will never use the word capitalism because somehow Markets and price and innovation yada yada. The woman running for Senate in Alaska is indigenous, adding even more contradiction to the equation. Water Is Life, right? Seven generations, right? Capitalist realism colonizes everyone equally, regardless of race or religion. Naomi Kein and Astra Taylor are calling out what they term "End Times Fascism". This is a sect or cult which has fused Christian millenialism with tech-utopian/dystopian futurism into a hyper-capitalist nationalism. Basically a genocidal attack on the poor and Nature. These are the same Christians which support the Zionist project because of the prophesy that Jesus will return and bring about the End Times. Therefore the more dead Palestinians (and Jews) the better.

Drill Baby Addendum

Nobody else is willing to sacrifice so why should I? To wit, drilling in the North Sea: "Now applications for two new offshore drilling projects — a lifeline for the region — could be decided by the government in the coming days or weeks. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, faces a choice with complex economic and political ramifications, no matter what he does. He could approve the projects — known as Rosebank and Jackdaw — and face a potential revolt from powerful clean energy constituencies that strongly oppose more drilling." Canada and America keep drilling, (including in our new protectorate Venezuela) South America keeps drilling, Russia keeps drilling. We just blew past 1.5 and no one cares, So what the heck?

Drill Baby Drill

Oil boom in Argentina. More drilling being proposed for the North Sea. All the big tech corporations walking away from their emission goals. In my novel Oblivions Cross there is a scene where protesters drag a guillotine to the headquarters of the evil fossil fuel inve4stment corporation. Today I saw this headline in the WAPO: Guillotine parked next to the Supreme Court leads to arrest Good on em! There is lots of concern about social media induced "brain rot", especially among youth. An opinion piece in todays Times argues that kids understand perfectly well what is being done to their minds by idiotic content yet prefer it to more covertly manipulative content: "when simulation admits it is simulation, it becomes more trustworthy than content that pretends to be real." This post-post modern affect is what explains Trump's appeal. In a totally corrupt, transactional system, the clown who proudly announces he is a fraud gains trust. Yes it is all Spectacle, and I'm here to entertain. It's all you can expect at this stage of late capitalism. Something like this occurred in the inter-war period in Europe with the art/culture movemnent called Dada. Part nihilism, part burlesque. Interestingly, it was Thoreau who coined the term in his book Walden as he observed the pop culture of his time. The Times article insisted it wasn't that youth were getting stupider but in fact there are some metrics pointing in that direction: " the share of American teenagers who failed to reach even a basic level of proficiency in reading and math, considered the minimum needed to read a utility bill, for example, has risen over the last decade." Asian students, on the other hand, ace these tests. This would be worrying if there wasn't already so much to worry about. For instance, the level of water in Colorado River reservoirs? Super El Nino? Shipping through the Bering Sea? AI bots hacking my bank account?

Working Class Heroes

Gustavo, a leader of NY City DSA who I have worked with, is enmeshed in the old class contradiction. Born into wealth, his credentials as a champion for the working class are questioned. The spotlight brings scrutiny and the quest for "gotcha" moments: "Look, he lives a life of privilege! Look, he doesn't have calloused hands!" Socialistsare being attacked from the right for being too educated. The right doesn't have that problem with its working class supporters; very few of them could find Iran on a map. Those who do know the difference between the two countries are still waiting for the US to find the WMD's in Iraq. I'm not saying stupid people shouldn't be represented in government, I'm just not sure they should have all the positions of leadership. For instance, the US just re-threatened China with sanctions, the one country keeping the price of oil under 150 dollars a barrel. At some point they will tire of listening to these morons rant about regime change and will bring the hammer down. The working class electricians union (IBEW) supports the build-out of data centers, a position even right wingers are backing away from. They just want good jobs, who can blame them, stuck as they are in a capitalist system which forces them to murder their offspring. They will build the gas chambers for good union wages and generous benefits.

Demand = Death

As the world burns under deadly heat waves, fires and drought, Big Tech Capital and their government enablers have decided to add more fuel to the fire.From the Financial Times: "An FT analysis of 60 of the largest planned data centres being built in the US by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta found that they could together produce 101.5mn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year once fully operational, based on the most recent snapshot of US power generation. That would be equivalent to about 7 per cent of US power-sector emissions in 2025 — the annual emissions of 27 coal plants or 24mn petrol-powered cars." Most of these emissions are new gas fired generators but there are also those aging coal plants that were slated to be de-comissioned but are now being extended. All this for a technology which will provide...certain benefits? some advantages? a better life? None of that is clear. We do know it is propping up the U.S. economy. Then there is insurance, where governments are becoming the insurer of last resort. "Climate impacts are no longer a marginal or far-future risk, but a structural macro-fiscal problem today. They will rapidly get more expensive in Europe because it is the world’s fastest-warming continent (EEA, 2024)." For some reason the movement against data centers prefers not to focus on climate impacts. They generally focus on water issues or noise or electricity bills going up. In fact conservative environmentalists urge capaigners not to use the word climate, that it triggers people who might otherwise support some policy. This is exactly why activists must use the climate argument continuously. Over and over and over. But the argument has to include capitalism as a failed system.