Dubious but scary thought
I think there's something more to Elon's CYBERTRK than a simple Sucker Filter. He's expanding the acceptable range of sadism and murder for his cultists.

I wrote in 2015:

= = = = = START REPRINT:

The old NRA slogan "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" applies correctly to guns, and also to normal autos and most other tools.

A gun or car or hammer or knife or screwdriver or weed-wacker can be a weapon... but only when used with specific deadly intention.

The slogan does NOT apply to autonomous cars. These weapons do kill people on their own, without any human intention.

Hold on. This seems complicated and subtle. Something is missing.

After thinking and walking about it, I formed a chain of reasoning:

What about a mousetrap? When I cock a trap and leave it in a mouseroad, I've created an autonomous weapon. It's programmed to detect a mouse (of below-median intelligence) and kill it.

What about a humantrap? When a store owner gets tired of thefts and sets up a shotgun with a tripwire, he has created an autonomous weapon. It's programmed to detect a thief (ditto) and kill him.

What about a landmine?

Aha. Now the correct dividing line emerges.

Mousetraps and tripwires are SELF-DEFENSE weapons. Landmines are NOT self-defense weapons. Landmines are placed on property that you don't own, and they're not protecting your own body or family.

Self-driving cars are mobile landmines. They are sent out to wander the roads, killing totally innocent pedestrians as a desired side-effect of unnecessary luxury.

Basically a Non-Virtual Reality Entertainment Experience for passive sadists.

= = = = = END REPRINT.

My first thought about the CYBRTRK last week:

WHY is bulletproof a selling point?

Elon's cultists are tech-monsters. Libertarians. Young males. A lot of them are Oriental or Hindu. All of them are well-educated, strong in math, short on life experience. They live precariously in high-rent areas surrounded by slums. They feel physically threatened, and perhaps they also sense that their wealth is on shaky ground, cantilevered by debt and subsidies and share-value Ponziness. Owning a bulletproof vehicle that looks just like the SWAT team's trucks is their substitute for owning a gun. You get to feel like a cop, leaving you free to ignore the gross inequality that you're helping to create, and leaving you free to HATE actual cops who actually put their lives on the line to defend your Libertarian ass.

= = = = =

Add these two concepts. The sum is a private army of literally weaponized autists, willing to let their sword-like autonomous autos do the killing for them, with no moral qualms.

Labels: Deadthink, Sucker Filter

  ¶ 12:39 AM