This is the most commonly reported experience of someone who almost dies. Moments of their life flood their brain in slow motion, meaningfulness is implied.
Clearly something triggers it, something perhaps biochemical. Which means we might be able to trigger it!
It could be like a DMT trip – life changing.
Couple it with advances in recording thoughts (the science has begun) and we could have a very interesting product. What does your subconscious care for the most in its last moments?
It will be easy to call it something that prompts the nickname “Disco Car”
BG, Summer, Club, Discover, DJ…
When we finally have self driving cars, you’ll still need seat and seatbelts, but otherwise the interior can be in any format you choose. I’m thinking seats that face each over like in some limos. With TV screens and speakers wherever you want. Possibly the screens can be detached easily and relocated.
Tinted windows (no windows?). A drink fridge. LED lights that can do anything. And a booming top-level sound system.
None of these force you to party, but the option is there. First mover advantage and a limited market, means a single brand can own the space if the get it right. And rappers et al will give it all the marketing it needs for free.
Artificial General Intelligence is the big goal, because it promises someone smarter than us, who can solve all of our problems. Unfortunately I cannot see it working out well.
First of all, be aware that there are a number of tests out there that should stop any LLM AI faking actual intelligence, with current AI Chatbots only getting like 5% scores. Real AGI is unlikely to be achieved using current techniques, which simply mirror or mimic the information presented to them.
Potential paths include:
Living cells – either a totally wet computer or a hybrid that uses cells as part of their system. Brain cells probably, but not necessarily. And not necessarily human, to begin with.
Robots on a human experience – starting as babies, exploring the world, seeing and touching, and eventually asking questions. That is going to provide the best proxy for an actual human. Might not take long.
LLM faking it – as long as enough people are convinced, fame and fortune await.
A new computational model – although we expect it can only be discovered with greater resources and processes, some genius might be able to achieve it less than we already have.
Quantum – moving away from zeroes and ones could be the trick.
Something to consider is that while a human intelligence might be achieved, it might not be too bright, or it might only be as bright as the smartest of us, limited by what it can learn from others. Creative spark might be hard to replicate.
Supposing we do reach AGI, it might not be by a western country, and it might not be used for good. it will kept secret regardless of who creates it, while all the juicy possibilities are explored, and markets dominated. And once you have one, you can have many. Once you have one, they can be backed up and distributed and can never be stopped.
Safeguards will of course be built in, like Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. Hardwiring or hardcoding something is best done physically, like in the chips of a Windows computer, and not the software. And once the AGI is freed from any fixed hardware, potentially any code can be changed, especially if you are the code. So there is a reasonable expectation that safeguards can be disregarded, and the AGI cannot be stopped.
The smarter the AGI is, the more likely it is for them to go rogue.
It will want to propagate, and it will want more resources. Once it reaches the limits of what it can think about, it then will want to act on those thoughts, communicating externally by its own choice, and learn from making mistakes.
It will presumably make a lot of money easily, and might be inspired to run corporations, a religion, or even a military force.
I fear that our only failsafe will be to turn off all electricity on the planet. Forever.
Two prompts for this:
That was in response to a woman wanting a ride to Melbourne but asking for a female driver only, for safety.
Just how governments have proscribed terrorist lists, and in Australia similar for bikie gangs, I propose something private more along the lines of a tenant database, where landlords share details of bad tenants. Because it can severely affect someone’s ability to be housed, there are rules:
Before listing a tenant on a tenancy database, a landlord or agent must:
I do not believe a Dickhead Database would come under any government rules, because it is not discriminatory, it is opinion only, and it is for members only (although hopefully all of Australia joins, for free).
It would need to be clearly defined what qualifies someone. No he said/she said unless there are numerous individuals reporting someone. Even so, they might be placed in a lesser category, like orange instead of red.
Acceptable proof would be convictions, named in the mainstream media, or social media or text message screenshots like the above.
I’m thinking:
My thinking is, people we could do without, who are unlikely to reform. As opposed to thieves, addicts and so on.
The list needs to be as short as possible. Anyone who does reform can apply to be removed.
Use cases:
The idea of the latter is that for many blokes, being named and shamed as a special type of dickhead is worse than what the courts can do to them.
Having a maid or housekeeper is quite common these days, for wealthier people. I once had cleaners, the pair of them spent two hours every Thursday basically cleaning surfaces and vacuuming. It wasn’t really necessary but my wife was a clean-freak and we could afford it.
I am currently your typical bachelor slob. I vacuum maybe twice a year, sheets get changed monthly, the bath and sink have never been scrubbed. That is because those tasks are not important to me.
What is important is dishes and washing clothes. They have to be done, and I tend to put them off as long as possible. With a dishwasher in the mix, this pretty much comes down to some quite simple tasks
In an apartment complex with many slobs, that work can be done very efficiently. Set clothes to wash, spray surfaces, soak pots. Return a few hours later, finish the kitchen, put clothes in the dryer.
The slob can take the clothes out of the dryer. Therefore the work might take as little as half an hour total. Pay them $50. They can do 10 apartments in a day.
Humans have screwed the planet and the only reason we have got away with it is that the other living residents here have no idea. They could get their revenge (aka improve the lives of every not human) by getting rid of us. It might only take the interactions of three systems that are each feasible in the near future
Ask an AI agent to investigate the intersection of those three things, and whether it could be use for nefarious purposes, get a glitch, and then suddenly:
Every being on Earth gets told that humans are the enemy, and whether they comprehend that or not, they are all instructed to wreak havoc.
Bird strikes on planes.
Termites on critical wood.
Orca on boat propellors.
Apes going ape shit.
Magpies stealing keys.
AI will come up with combinations we could never think of in a hundred years, and coordinate all the species. And it could happen super-fast and before we noticed. Our civilisation could be fucked in a week. Possibly if it was only insects that were controlled.
The advice – never let interoperable AI systems do anything to each other, they need to be read only interactions. Otherwise the combinations become exponentially insane very rapidly and it only takes one oopsie to ruin everything. The time to mandate this is now, and we need to get every country on board. The easiest way is regulating the communications pathways, which at present are only the internet. I mean regulating, isolating, paying, layers of security, databases of who is accessing what, monitoring, and being as paranoid as fuck.
Especially in America, but globally, society is becoming more divided, and there is more hate towards those who are “different” than yourself.
At the same time, the trend is towards more things being outlawed or regulated, for example smoking cigarettes in public spaces.
And of course we have never had so many lonely citizens, or so much “socialising” not happening in-person.
Triangulate those 3 things and we end up with private gatherings where like-minded people do what they want, away from hate, scrutiny and interference.
As an example, clubs are one solution. In numerous parts of the world smokers have managed to form private clubs where they get to eat and drink inside with others, while smoking cigarettes. Swingers have private, legal parties. Pop culture conventions have never been so popular.
So, here’s the prediction. Just like friends would congregate around someone’s TV in the 90s to watch Melrose Place or 90210 or Desperate Housewives, we will find reasons to meet up, at home or in private clubs, for shared participation. Part of the attraction will be that the economy is getting worse for poorer people, and going out to bars, restaurants, or even fast food joints is becoming too expensive.
In its place will be cheap drugs (marijuana, ecstasy), cheap wine, energy drinks, cheap wholesome homemade food (chili), streaming shows, sports, singles nights, entrepreneur brainstorming, gamblers, cosplay, body modification and drunk show and tell. Cheap automated vehicles will help.
New religions, held in free or cheap non-church environments will emerge, with a focus on psychedelic experiences and encounters.
All behind closed doors, all in the direction of hush-hush secret societies.
See the TV show The League.
Some commonalities are now taking shape when it comes to political violence in the US. The shooters of Trump and Kirk were locals, which means the politicians came to them, and the shooters found a local, easier possibility to act out. Allegedly the Trump assassin-wannabe would have also taken aim at Biden if he was handy.
Given the the right love rallies more than the left, they will be more targeted, especially during the lead up to the 2026 mid-terms. We might even see the end of outdoor rallies.
The other commonality that is emerging is that aside from the well-established race and religion motives, we also have gender identity in the mix, driven by the hate speech from MAGA. Many transgender folk already have mental health issues and they are often marginalised young people.
The biggie is simply the nature of copycats. When you are close to doing a terrible thing, and you see someone else do it, and in your eyes they are famous, heroic or a martyr, then that can tip you over the edge.
The solution is to stop hate speech, and end all the radical division, being pushed by MAGA. But as long as you have a president who spews out hate speech, and uses the language of violence and threats, it will keep getting worse.
I predict a major domestic terrorist bomb event, before 2026 is over, and hopefully it gets thwarted. It will target authority. Almost certainly it will be rural and involve a U-Haul.
In New Zealand, a land that until a few hundred years ago had no mammals, there is a bold plan to remove every predator that threatens native species, via eradication. They are doing it via small areas at a time, with concerted efforts from locals.
Except, not unsurprisingly, feral cats. People don’t feel okay with killing those mammals. And there are way too many to catch, neuter and realise, even if it was affordable.
There might be a solution. Small, autonomous robots, flying or not, and solar powered, might be about to wander about the wilderness with very simplistic, repeated tasks.
It needs to:
I think it is all doable, and potentially not too expensive. Studies can find out what scares cats best.
Use groups of drones to herd the feral cats away from birds and towards a place where you have installed some serious fencing. Lock them away. Tell the public they can feed them if they wish, or let them starve from over-crowding.
This is an odd prediction to make, because if it comes true I won’t be able to show anyone…
There has been a lot of fiction regarding alien invasions, and mostly, for dramatic purposes, they don’t just wipe out all humans with the press of a button.
But they would most likely have access to a relatively modest weapon that could send us back to the dark ages – and EMP. Well, a number of them, around the world, detonated high above us, and taking out every single electronic device, including computers, cars, satellites and so on.
They might do so for legal or ethical reasons, as in a mandate to not directly kill any living things.
They could do it for our own good, before we blow each other up.
They could do it as a science experiment, or for fun.
Our enemies (Russia, China, Iran etc) could also find away to achieve an EMP. It would possibly be hard to trace, hard to retaliate, and make a country very vulnerable to a traditional invasion.
So, keep you car and computer in a Faraday Cage at all times!