A belief later espoused by the Unabomber.
My "Gaia Shrugs more Bigly" may well be me channeling ole Kaczynski
hisself. I think Wilson's quote was in his 2000ish "Conscilience"? I
don't know if K made a similar observation? I did read his manifesto
back in the day but it is long integrated into my (weakly) associative
memory (tinyLLM?).
<For whomever might care or remember>
At LAN(S)L the mailroom/system ramped up their worries that the
Unabomber might (obviously?) target one of us... I think it was
triggered by the first death (1985) he caused? This lasted about a
year, and then the Cold war had thawed, the Iron Curtain fallen, and
USSR disbanded (sortof) and all their Nukes were called home.
It did lead to a lot of discussion (both in 85 and 95) about the various
orders or hierarchies of presumed moral responsibility/implications
around the work we did (ranging from presumably fundamentally ?purely?
humanitarian through variations on mundane to the variations on acutely
inhumane (EWPs, EMPs, Davy Crockett, etc).
This was not a new conversation (e.g. Oppenheimer, et al vs Teller et
al, etc) and it spread from "might we ignite the atmosphere?" to "gray
goo" and bioterror speculations. I was proud that (at least) a few
Weapon's Designers/Cold Warriors starting with Oppy, continuing with
Agnew and Hecker unto Pedecini. I'm far from current (well over a
decade... dunno if anyone is chatting this up inside LANL anymore?)
Re: Kaczynski: I often forget how close we live to Florence ADX
Supermax until I drive that route to/from Denver which reminds me of the
myriad ?terrorists/criminals/psychopaths? (homegrown and imported) we've
experienced in my adulthood.
*ADX Florence* (also known as the *United States Penitentiary,
Administrative Maximum Facility* or "Supermax") in *Florence,
Colorado*, is a high-security federal prison that houses some of the
most notorious and dangerous criminals in the U.S. The facility is
known for its extreme security measures and solitary confinement
practices.
Here are some of the more notable inmates who are housed at ADX
Florence who have variously used mail, shoes, underwear, rental
trucks, and airliners to bomb their targets somewhat unconcerned
about collateral:
*1. Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber)*:
* *Crime*: A former mathematician and domestic terrorist
responsible for a nationwide bombing campaign between 1978
and 1995, which killed three people and injured 23.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 1998).
*2. Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán*:
* *Crime*: The infamous Mexican drug lord and former leader of
the *Sinaloa Cartel*, one of the most powerful drug
trafficking organizations in the world.
* *Notoriety*: Known for his daring prison escapes in Mexico
and his role in drug-related violence. He was extradited to
the U.S. in 2017, convicted in 2019, and sentenced to life
in prison.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment plus 30 years (since 2019).
*3. Ramzi Yousef*:
* *Crime*: The mastermind behind the *1993 World Trade Center
bombing*, which killed six people and injured over 1,000.
* *Other Notable Acts*: He was also involved in the *Bojinka
Plot*, a plan to bomb multiple airliners.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment plus 240 years (since 1998).
*4. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev*:
* *Crime*: One of the perpetrators of the *2013 Boston
Marathon bombing*, which killed three people and injured
over 260 others.
* *Status*: Initially sentenced to death in 2015, though there
have been legal challenges and appeals regarding the sentence.
* *Sentence*: Currently sentenced to death, pending appeals.
*5. Richard Reid (The "Shoe Bomber")*:
* *Crime*: Reid attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his
shoes during a *2001 American Airlines flight* from Paris to
Miami.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole (since 2003).
*6. Zacarias Moussaoui*:
* *Crime*: Convicted for his role in the *9/11 attacks*,
though he was not one of the hijackers. He was found guilty
of conspiring with al-Qaeda to commit terrorism.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2006).
*7. Robert Hanssen*:
* *Crime*: A former FBI agent convicted of *spying for the
Soviet Union and Russia* for more than two decades. His
actions are considered one of the worst intelligence
breaches in U.S. history.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2002).
*8. Terry Nichols*:
* *Crime*: An accomplice in the *1995 Oklahoma City bombing*,
which killed 168 people and injured hundreds. The attack was
the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history at
the time.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 1997).
*9. Eric Rudolph*:
* *Crime*: The perpetrator of the *1996 Centennial Olympic
Park bombing* in Atlanta, which killed two people and
injured more than 100. Rudolph was also responsible for
bombing abortion clinics and a gay nightclub.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2005).
*10. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (The "Underwear Bomber")*:
* *Crime*: Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate an explosive
device hidden in his underwear during a *2009 flight to
Detroit*.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2012).
*11. Mutulu Shakur*:
* *Crime*: A former member of the *Black Liberation Army* and
stepfather of rapper *Tupac Shakur*, he was convicted for
his role in a series of armed robberies in the 1980s,
including the *Brinks armored truck robbery*, which left two
police officers and a guard dead.
* *Sentence*: 60 years, released on parole in 2022.
*12. Michael Swango*:
* *Crime*: A former doctor and serial killer who was convicted
of poisoning patients and colleagues.
* *Sentence*: Life imprisonment without parole (since 2000).
And let's not forget Woody Harrelson's Father, the gangland hitman
extra-ordinaire ?
I believe we have our own (near) Weatherman in house?
*From:*Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *steve smith
*Sent:* Friday, October 4, 2024 11:53 AM
*To:* friam@redfish.com
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] nice quote
/"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have
Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike
technology. And it is terrifically dangerous."/Edward O. Wilson.
davew
This is a favorite quote for me of late... the challenge, methinks is
"what am I going to do about it?"
I try to resolve these questions for myself before I get too carried
away trying to prescribe anything for anyone else (especially large
scale/global solutions), yet it is useful to keep this in mind whilst
considering what I think is 'best for the collective'.
Maturing and Aging have offered me some perspective and relief from
the emotional component (especially the fight/flight reproduce-at-all
cost hormone driven ones). Similarly I've now seen (and studied) a
variety of socio-economic-political systems enough to have at least
vaguely informed opinions about them (unlike the totally mis-informed
ones I had leading me to vote Reagan in over Carter as my first
vote). The technological question is more near and dear to my heart
having been simultaneously (or alternately?) a technophile and a luddite.
I have dabbled in 19th century (and earlier) technology to help ground
my grounding in the mid-late 20th century I grew up as part of the
background. I've been lucky enough to engage some with 21st century
tech early by virtue of working at an over-funded scientific
laboratory which often either had access to or was developing for it's
own ideosyncratic reasons, things which the public wouldn't see or
maybe even hear about for decades. It was heady. But also disturbing.
Yuval Harari's latest book /Nexus/, touches on the implications of our
"information technology" development over millenia but especially the
last few decades with a very *liberal* view of what means information
technology (and networks in particular). Continuing his other
cautionary tales about the power of our "storytelling", I feel like he
lays the groundwork for the most likely way we might recalibrate
emotions to institutions to technology. Our technology has been
pulling hard against the drag of our institutions which are faithfully
trying to drag our emotions (e.g. religious/political/cultural moral
frameworks) and the impedance mismatch seems to be the source of most
of our worst behaviours/outcomes?
The stories our modern MAGA/FauxRepublican/FauxConservative political
party in the US is telling is rooted deeply in the emotional with only
the barest nod to the institutional (support LawNorder!!!!) and a
jealous greedy eye for the godlike tech (e.g. Trump cozying up to
Musk/TechBros and NFTs and Crypto as if he understands ANY of it?).
The Progressive/Liberal "institutions" of the DNC seem to be a little
less regressive/reactionary but do in fact suffer some of the same
problems albeit not as acutely superficially obvious. Without
bashing the specifics of what "the Dems" might be getting wrong, if we
don't notice the impedance mismach EO Wilson called out for us there,
we are destined to have raucous "ringing" in our systems? I think
the promise of a "Green New Deal" juxtaposed with some of the biggest
obvious fallacies and inadequacies are a good example... by the time
we actually settle on what a GND might really look like the challenges
and opportunities may have moved on by a decade or more (is GND a
whole decade old as a term yet?) while MAGA keeps trying to claim "we
believe in clean air and water but sea level rise will be fractions of
an inch in centuries at worst and will yield more beachfront property
in any case"?
How do we move our collective storytelling to be both coherent and
aligned with the physics/chemistry/bio/ecology of Gaia quickly enough
to quit driving the various components past their limits (drill baby
drill!)?
Maybe we cannot. Maybe we will have to crash and burn and hope
something can rise from the ashes (cockroaches and the Rolling
Stones? NeoLibertarian TechBros in their high-tech Bitcoin Bunkers
raising their own clones?)
Atlas Shrugs, Gaia Shrugs more Bigly.... (Rand, Margulis, Dilbert,
Trump references convolved?)
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