The myths of America seems to be at the root of so much of this. The idea that we can take from the planet (or the solar system) from the “other”, and each other with no consequence somehow gets rationalized by the likes of Kaczynski, Musk, or Bannon as the essential property of freedom. Exploitation and the exercise of power is all there is, in this view.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/trump-harris-american-myths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.XPoB.77hNAmC3lb8K <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/05/opinion/trump-harris-american-myths.html?unlocked_article_code=1.P04.XPoB.77hNAmC3lb8K&smid=url-share> &smid=url-share From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of steve smith Sent: Saturday, October 5, 2024 9:53 AM To: friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] nice quote 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 <mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com> <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of steve smith Sent: Friday, October 4, 2024 11:53 AM To: friam@redfish.com <mailto: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?) -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
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-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
